System for managing patient support apparatuses and patient fall risks

ABSTRACT

A caregiver assistance system is disclosed for assisting a caregiver to ensure the beds of high fall risk patients are in desired states for reducing the likelihood of a patient falling. The system may also help the caregiver to perform rounding tasks. The system comprises a server in communication with the patients&#39; beds and one or more mobile electronic devices (e.g. smart phones). The mobile devices receive answers to a plurality of fall risk questions and forward them to the server. The server generates a patient fall risk assessment from the answers, determines a desired state for fall-risk components of the bed if the patient fall risk assessment indicates the patient has a high risk of falling, compares the states of the fall-risk components to corresponding desired states, and issues an alert at the mobile device if any of the fall-risk components are not in their desired state.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to the following U.S. patentapplications: 62/868,947 filed Jun. 30, 2019, by inventors ThomasDurlach et al. and entitled CAREGIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM; 62/868,387filed Jun. 28, 2019, by inventors Thomas Durlach et al. and entitledCAREGIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM; 62/826,187 filed Mar. 29, 2019, byinventors Thomas Durlach et al. and entitled SYSTEM FOR MANAGING PATIENTSUPPORT APPARATUSES AND PATIENT FALL RISKS; 62/868,360 filed Jun. 28,2019, by inventors Thomas Durlach et al. and entitled CAREGIVERASSISTANCE SYSTEM; and 62/826,195 filed Mar. 29, 2019, by inventorsThomas Durlach et al. and entitled SYSTEM FOR MANAGING PATIENT SUPPORTAPPARATUSES AND BED SORE RISKS, the complete disclosures of all of whichare incorporated herein by reference. This patent application alsoincorporates by reference the complete disclosures of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/716,725 filed Dec. 17, 2019, by inventors ThomasDurlach et al. and entitled SYSTEM FOR MANAGING PATIENT SUPPORTAPPARATUSES AND CLINICAL ROUNDS, and Ser. No. 16/716,729 filed Dec. 17,2019, by inventors Thomas Durlach et al. and entitled SYSTEM FORMANAGING PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUSES AND CLINICAL ROUNDS.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to patient support apparatuses, such asbeds, cots, stretchers, operating tables, recliners, or the like. Morespecifically, the present disclosure relates to a system for assistingcaregivers with both the management of such patient support apparatusesand the performance of other tasks, such as, but not limited to, theirrounding tasks.

Hospitals typically expect nurses and/or other caregivers to perform avariety of different duties when carrying for patients. These dutiesinclude administering medications and/or therapies, taking vital signreadings, installing and removing IV drips, taking blood samples,ensuring patient compliance with prescribed activities and/ormedications, assisting the patient into and out of bed, regularlyvisiting the patient, configuring the patient's bed to be in a desiredstate, documenting one or more of these activities, and generally beingresponsive to the patient's needs. One of these duties includingperforming what are customarily known as patient rounds. Such roundingduties involve the caregiver personally checking on the wellbeing of thepatient at certain specified intervals. Hospital administratorstypically specify a minimum frequency at which the caregivers are toperform these rounding duties, such as, for example, at least once everytwo hours. In some situations, the rounding frequencies may vary basedon the medical condition of the patient, the wing or section of thehospital, and/or other factors.

Hospitals also typically expect nurses and/or other caregivers to helpreduce the risk of patients falling. In many hospitals, patients are tobe assigned a fall risk and, if the fall risk exceeds a certainthreshold, certain steps are to be taken by the caregiver in order toreduce the likelihood of the patient falling while in the hospital. Suchfall risk reduction steps often involve placing one or more componentsof the hospital bed into one or more desired states, such as, forexample, arming an exit detection system, activating a brake, etc. Inmany hospitals, the tasks and responsibility of nurses and othercaregivers can be manifold and substantial, and technology that assiststhese caregivers in meeting their responsibilities and providing qualityhealthcare to their patients is desirable.

SUMMARY

According to various embodiments, a tool for assisting caregivers incarrying out several of their patient care responsibilities is providedherein. According to some embodiments, a tool is specifically providedfor facilitating the caregiver's fall-risk reduction duties, as well asother duties, such as, but not limited to the caregiver's roundingduties. The tool may assist with the caregiver's fall-risk reductionduties by helping the caregiver to ensure that the patient's bed is in adesired configuration and that the patient's fall risk is properly andtimely determined. The tool can be particularly helpful in situationswhere the desired configuration of the bed is deemed to have, or isotherwise treated as having, a lower priority than the other dutiesassigned to a caregiver. According to other embodiments, the tool mayadditionally assist the caregiver with performing still other duties,such as reminding the caregiver to perform certain activities,evaluating one or more aspects of the patient's health (e.g. whether thepatient is at risk for bed sores, and/or other undesirable conditions);documenting one or more aspects of the patient's care, and/or otherduties. In some embodiments, the tool combines bed status data withrounding data so that the caregiver is reminded of undesirable bedstates while he or she is carrying out his or her rounding duties. Moreparticularly, the tool may provide an alert to the caregiver of anundesirable bed configuration while the caregiver is using otherfunctions of the tool, thereby allowing the caregiver to perform othertasks while the bed compliance issues are monitored. The tool alsoeliminates the need for the caregiver to access and/or utilize separatetools for performing disparate patient care tasks. In order to betterensure that the bed is configured to a fall-risk reduced state, therounding functions—or other functions—of the tool may be renderedpartially or wholly inoperative when a bed is not configured to reducefall risks. These and other aspects of the present disclosure will beapparent to one skilled in the art in light of the following writtendescription.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a caregiverassistance system is provided for assisting a caregiver to reducepatient fall risks. The caregiver assistance system includes a pluralityof beds and a server. Each of the beds includes a litter frame, asupport deck, a memory, a transceiver, a sensor, and a controller. Thesupport deck is supported on the litter frame and configured to supporta patient thereon. The memory contains an identifier uniquelyidentifying the respective bed. The sensor detects a state of afall-risk component of the respective bed, and the controller transmitsa message via the transceiver that includes the respective identifier.The server is configured to execute a caregiver assistance applicationthat receives the messages from the plurality of bed, as well as apatient fall risk assessment from an external device. The patient fallrisk assessment identifies a fall risk of a particular patient, and thecaregiver assistance application matches the patient fall riskassessment to a specific one of the beds to which the particular patienthas been assigned.

According to other aspects of the present disclosure, the externaldevice is a mobile electronic device carried by a caregiver and adaptedto receive fall risk data from the caregiver. The mobile electronicdevice is configured to generate the patient fall risk assessment fromthe fall risk data.

In some embodiments, the mobile electronic device is one of a smartphone, a tablet computer, or a laptop computer.

The fall risk data, in some embodiments, includes answers to a set ofquestions regarding the particular patient.

The server, in some embodiments, includes a memory in which state datais stored defining a desired state of the fall-risk component forpatients having a high fall risk. The caregiver assistance applicationdetermines if the fall risk of the particular patient qualifies as ahigh fall risk and, if it does, determines if the fall-risk component ofthe specific one of the beds is in the desired state based upon datareceived from the sensor of the specific one of the beds.

In at least one other embodiment, the specific one of the beds includesa plurality of sensors adapted to detect states of a plurality offall-risk components. In this embodiment, the state data includesdesired states for each of the plurality of fall-risk components, andthe caregiver assistance application determines if any of the pluralityof fall-risk components of the specific one of the beds are not in theirrespective desired states. The caregiver assistance application isadapted to communicate with a mobile electronic device carried by acaregiver and to provide data to the mobile electronic device indicatingwhether the plurality of fall-risk components of the specific one of thebeds are in their respective desired states or not.

In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application is furtheradapted to provide data to the mobile electronic device identifying thefall-risk component. The identification may include a graphicaldepiction of the specific one of the beds on the display of the mobileelectronic device, wherein the graphical depiction includes thefall-risk component.

The plurality of fall-risk components of the beds, in at least oneembodiment, includes a brake adapted to selectively brake a wheel; asiderail adapted to move between a raised and lowered position; a liftsystem adapted to change a height of the litter frame; and an exitdetection system adapted to issue an alert when the exit detectionsystem is armed and the particular patient exits from the specific oneof the beds.

In some embodiments, the external device is one of an electronic medicalrecords (EMR) server or an Admission, Discharge, and Tracking (ADT)server.

The mobile electronic device, in some embodiments, is a browser enableddevice configured to receive the data from the caregiver assistanceapplication by accessing at least one Uniform Resource Locator (URL)associated with the server.

The mobile electronic device may be configured to receive a roomidentifier from the caregiver and to forward the room identifier to thecaregiver assistance application. In response, the caregiver assistanceapplication associates the room identifier with the particular patient.

In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application causes themobile electronic device to display an alert if any of the plurality offall-risk components of the specific one of the beds are not in theirrespective desired states.

The caregiver assistance application, in some embodiments, is furtheradapted to cause the mobile electronic device to display rounding datathereon. The rounding data indicates at least one of: an amount of timesince a caregiver last completed a rounding task associated with theparticular patient, or an amount of time until the caregiver is supposedto complete a future rounding task associated with the particularpatient.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, a caregiverassistance system for assisting a caregiver to reduce patient fall risksincludes a bed and a server. The bed includes a litter frame, a supportdeck, a memory, a transceiver, a plurality of sensors, and a controller.The support deck is supported on the litter frame and configured tosupport a patient thereon. The memory contains an identifier uniquelyidentifying the bed. The plurality of sensors are adapted to detectstates of a plurality of fall-risk components of the bed. The controllertransmits the identifier and the states of the plurality of fall-riskcomponents via the transceiver to the server. The server is configuredto execute a caregiver assistance application that receives theidentifier and the states of the plurality of fall-risk components ofthe bed. The caregiver assistance application also monitors complianceof the plurality of fall-risk components with a fall risk reductionprotocol. The caregiver assistance application is further configured tocommunicate with a mobile electronic device comprising a display, a userinput, and a web browser configured to be able to access a particularUniform Resources Locator (URL) associated with the caregiver assistanceapplication. The caregiver assistance application is still furtherconfigured to cause the mobile electronic device to perform thefollowing after accessing the particular URL: (i) display the states ofthe plurality of fall-risk components of the bed; (ii) receive fall riskdata via the user input from a caregiver associated with the mobileelectronic device and the bed; (iii) transmit the fall risk data to theserver; and (iv) issue an alert if any of the states of the plurality offall-risk components of the bed do not comply with the fall riskreduction protocol.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, the caregiverassistance application is further configured to cause the mobileelectronic device to perform the following after accessing theparticular URL: display a set of questions relating to a fall risk ofthe patient; receive answers to the set of questions; and transmit theanswers to the server.

In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application is furtherconfigured to cause the mobile electronic device to receive data fromthe user input defining a change to the fall risk reduction protocol.

The beds, in some embodiments, include a user interface adapted to allowa user to input data defining a change to the fall risk reductionprotocol.

The caregiver assistance system may further comprise: (a) a brakeadapted to selectively brake a wheel; (b) a siderail adapted to movebetween a raised and lowered position; (c) a lift system adapted tochange a height of the litter frame; and (d) an exit detection systemadapted to issue an alert when the exit detection system is armed andthe patient exits from the bed. In such embodiments, the plurality ofsensors of the bed include at least the following: (i) a brake sensoradapted to detect whether the brake is activated or inactivated; (ii) asiderail position sensor adapted to detect whether the siderail is inthe raised or lowered position; (iii) a height sensor adapted to detecta height of the litter frame; and (iv) an exit detection armed sensoradapted to detect when the exit detection system is armed. Stillfurther, in such embodiments, the fall risk reduction protocol definesdesired states for each of the brake, siderail, lift system, and exitdetection system.

The caregiver assistance application, in some embodiments, is furtheradapted to use the answers to the set of questions received from themobile electronic device to generate a patient fall risk assessment, andto determine whether the fall risk reduction protocol is to be followedfor the bed or not based upon the patient fall risk assessment.

In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application is furtheradapted to forward the patient fall risk assessment to an electronicmedical records server in communication with the server.

The bed may further comprise a user interface adapted to allow a user toinput data defining the fall risk reduction protocol. In suchembodiments, the caregiver assistance application is adapted to receivethe data defining the fall risk reduction protocol from the bed.

In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application is furtherconfigured to allow the mobile electronic device to receive a command toarm the exit detection system from a user and to forward the command tothe bed. The controller on the bed arms the exit detection system inresponse to receiving the command.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, a caregiverassistance system for assisting a caregiver to reduce patient fall risksis provided. The caregiver assistance system includes a bed and aserver. The bed includes a litter frame, a support deck, a memory, atransceiver, a plurality of sensors, and a controller. The support deckis supported on the litter frame and configured to support a patientthereon. The memory contains an identifier uniquely identifying the bed.The sensors detect states of a plurality of fall-risk components of thebed. The controller transmits the identifier and the states of theplurality of fall-risk components to the server via the transceiver. Theserver is configured to execute a caregiver assistance application thatperforms the following: (i) communicates with a mobile electronic devicecomprising a display and a user input; (ii) receives from the mobileelectronic device answers to a plurality of fall risk questions; (iii)generates a patient fall risk assessment from the answers; (iv)determines a desired state for each of the plurality of fall-riskcomponents of the bed if the patient fall risk assessment indicates thepatient has a high risk of falling; (v) compares the states of theplurality of fall-risk components to corresponding ones of the desiredstates of each of the plurality of fall-risk components; and (vi) issuesan alert at the mobile electronic device if at least one of the statesof the plurality of fall-risk components does not match thecorresponding desired state.

According to other aspects of the present disclosure, the plurality offall-risk components comprises: a brake adapted to selectively brake awheel; a siderail adapted to move between a raised and lowered position;a lift system adapted to change a height of the litter frame; and anexit detection system adapted to issue an alert when the exit detectionsystem is armed and the patient exits from the bed. In such embodiments,the plurality of sensors comprises: a brake sensor adapted to detectwhether the brake is activated or inactivated; a siderail positionsensor adapted to detect whether the siderail is in the raised orlowered position; a height sensor adapted to detect a height of thelitter frame; and an exit detection armed sensor adapted to detect whenthe exit detection system is armed. The desired state for each of thesefall-risk components, in such embodiments, includes a desired state foreach of the brake, siderail, lift system, and exit detection system.

In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application determines thedesired state for each of the plurality of fall-risk components byconsulting a fall risk reduction protocol stored in the memory. The fallrisk reduction protocol specifies desired states for each of theplurality of fall-risk components when the patient has a high risk offalling.

In some embodiments, the bed further comprises a user interface adaptedto allow a user to input data defining the fall risk reduction protocoland the caregiver assistance application is adapted to receive and storein the memory the data defining the fall risk reduction protocol fromthe bed.

The caregiver assistance application, in some embodiments, issues thealert by sending at least one of the following to the mobile electronicdevice: an email or a text message.

The caregiver assistance application may further be adapted to cause themobile electronic device to receive rounding data from a caregiverindicating a rounding task was completed, as well as to cause the mobileelectronic device to capture verification data verifying the caregiverwas physically present adjacent the bed at a time the rounding task wascompleted.

In some embodiments, the mobile electronic device includes a camera andthe verification data includes image data taken with the camera of atleast a portion of the bed. Alternatively, or additionally, the bed mayinclude a first near field transceiver and the mobile electronic devicemay include a second near field transceiver, wherein the verificationdata includes data communicated from the bed to the mobile electronicdevice via the first and second near field transceivers.

According to yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, acaregiver assistance system for assisting a caregiver to reduce patientfall risks is provided. The caregiver assistance system comprises a bedand a server. The bed comprises a litter frame, a support deck, amemory, a transceiver, a plurality of sensors, and a controller. Thesupport deck is supported on the litter frame and configured to supporta patient thereon. The memory contains an identifier uniquelyidentifying the bed. The plurality of sensors are adapted to detectstates of a plurality of fall-risk components of the bed. The controlleris adapted to transmit the identifier and the states of the plurality offall-risk components to the server via the transceiver. The serverexecutes a caregiver assistance application that is configured todetermine a desired state for each of the plurality of fall-riskcomponents of the bed if a patient fall risk assessment indicates thepatient has a high risk of falling. The caregiver assistance applicationalso compares the states of the plurality of fall-risk components tocorresponding ones of the desired states of each of the plurality offall-risk components. Still further, the caregiver assistanceapplication also performs the following: communicates with a mobileelectronic device comprising a display and a user input; receives fromthe mobile electronic device data indicating a caregiver has completed arounding task associated with the patient; captures verification dataverifying that the caregiver was physically present adjacent the bedwhen the rounding task was completed; and causes the mobile electronicdevice to issue an alert if at least one of the states of the pluralityof fall-risk components does not match the corresponding desired state.

According to other aspects, the caregiver assistance application mayfurther be adapted to cause the mobile electronic device to display atime at which a future rounding task is to be performed for the patient,and/or a time at which a previous rounding task was performed for thepatient.

In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application is furtherconfigured to receive from the mobile electronic device answers to aplurality of fall risk questions and to generate a patient fall riskassessment from the answers.

The caregiver assistance application may further be configured toforward the patient fall risk assessment to an electronic medicalrecords server in communication with the server.

In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application is furtherconfigured to allow the mobile electronic device to receive a command toarm the exit detection system from a user and to forward the command tothe bed. The controller arms the exit detection system in response toreceiving the command.

In any of the embodiments disclosed herein, multiple beds and/ormultiple mobile electronic devices may be included that are incommunication with the server. The caregiver assistance applicationkeeps track of which beds are associated with which rooms and/orcaregivers. In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application isconfigured to only supply bed status information for beds that arepositioned in particular rooms assigned to a particular caregiver. Thatis, not all users of the caregiver assistance application are able toaccess the bed status data and/or patient fall risk data for all bedsand/or all patients within the healthcare facility. Instead, thecaregiver assistance application includes a log-in process thatidentifies a particular user. The caregiver assistance application thenautomatically limits that particular user's access to patient and/or bedinformation according to that person's credentials and/or workassignment. In this way, a first caregiver assigned to patients A, B,and C is not typically able to access information about patient D and/orpatient D′s bed. Similarly, a second caregiver assigned to patients D,E, and F is not typically able to access information about patients A,B, or C. In some embodiments, the caregiver assistance application isconfigured to allow users to share information and/or swap assignments,thereby permitting different users to view different patient and/or beddata.

Before the various embodiments disclosed herein are explained in detail,it is to be understood that the claims are not to be limited to thedetails of operation or to the details of construction and thearrangement of the components set forth in the following description orillustrated in the drawings. The embodiments described herein arecapable of being practiced or being carried out in alternative ways notexpressly disclosed herein. Also, it is to be understood that thephraseology and terminology used herein are for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of“including” and “comprising” and variations thereof is meant toencompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well asadditional items and equivalents thereof. Further, enumeration may beused in the description of various embodiments. Unless otherwiseexpressly stated, the use of enumeration should not be construed aslimiting the claims to any specific order or number of components. Norshould the use of enumeration be construed as excluding from the scopeof the claims any additional steps or components that might be combinedwith or into the enumerated steps or components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a patient support apparatus usable in acaregiver assistance system according to one embodiment of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the caregiverassistance system of the present disclosure showing a detailed set ofcomponents of the patient support apparatus of FIG. 1, as well as aportion of a local area network in which the patient support apparatusis in communication;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a set of components of a caregiverassistance application executed on a server of the caregiver assistancesystem of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the caregiver assistance system shownintegrated into a local area network of a healthcare facility;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a general algorithm executed by thecaregiver assistance application of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a caregiver assistance algorithm executed bythe caregiver assistance application of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a portable electronic device usable with thecaregiver assistance system of FIG. 2 wherein the portable electronicdevice is shown displaying a login screen for the caregiver assistanceapplication;

FIG. 8 is an illustrative screenshot of a room listing screen that isdisplayable on an electronic device of the caregiver assistance system;

FIG. 9 is an illustrative screenshot of a room overview screen that isdisplayable on an electronic device of the caregiver assistance system;

FIG. 10 is an illustrative screenshot of a first rounding questionscreen that is displayable on an electronic device of the caregiverassistance system;

FIG. 11 is an illustrative screenshot of a second rounding questionscreen that is displayable on an electronic device of the caregiverassistance system;

FIG. 12 is an illustrative screenshot of third rounding question screenthat is displayable on an electronic device of the caregiver assistancesystem;

FIG. 13 is an illustrative screenshot of a fourth rounding questionscreen that is displayable on an electronic device of the caregiverassistance system;

FIG. 14 is an illustrative screenshot of rounding completion screen thatis displayable on an electronic device of the caregiver assistancesystem;

FIG. 15 is an illustrative screenshot of a first rounding verificationscreen that is displayable on an electronic device of the caregiverassistance system;

FIG. 16 is an illustrative screenshot of a second rounding verificationscreen that is displayable on an electronic device of the caregiverassistance system;

FIG. 17 is an illustrative screenshot of a third rounding verificationscreen that is displayable on an electronic device of the caregiverassistance system;

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram of a fall risk reduction algorithm executed bythe caregiver assistance application of FIG. 3;

FIG. 19 is an illustrative screenshot of a first fall risk assessmentquestion screen that is displayable on an electronic device of thecaregiver assistance system;

FIG. 20 is an illustrative screenshot of a second fall risk assessmentquestion screen that is displayable on an electronic device of thecaregiver assistance system;

FIG. 21 is an illustrative screenshot of a third fall risk assessmentquestion screen that is displayable on an electronic device of thecaregiver assistance system;

FIG. 22 is an illustrative screenshot of a fourth fall risk assessmentquestion screen that is displayable on an electronic device of thecaregiver assistance system;

FIG. 23 is an illustrative screenshot of a fifth fall risk assessmentquestion screen that is displayable on an electronic device of thecaregiver assistance system;

FIG. 24 is an illustrative screenshot of a sixth fall risk assessmentquestion screen that is displayable on an electronic device of thecaregiver assistance system;

FIG. 25 is an illustrative screenshot of a fall risk assessmentinformation screen that is displayable on an electronic device of thecaregiver assistance system;

FIG. 26 is an illustrative screenshot of a first bed exit advisoryscreen that is displayable on an electronic device of the caregiverassistance system;

FIG. 27 is an illustrative screenshot of a second bed exit advisoryscreen that is displayable on an electronic device of the caregiverassistance system;

FIG. 28 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the caregiverassistance system of the present disclosure showing a detailed set ofcomponents of a patient support apparatus usable therein, as well as aportion of a local area network in which the patient support apparatusis in communication;

FIG. 29 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the caregiverassistance system of the present disclosure showing a detailed set ofcomponents of a patient support apparatus usable therein, as well as aportion of a local area network in which the patient support apparatusis in communication; and

FIG. 30 is a block diagram of a fourth embodiment of the caregiverassistance system of the present disclosure showing a detailed set ofcomponents of a patient support apparatus usable therein, as well as aportion of a local area network in which the patient support apparatusis in communication.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

An illustrative patient support apparatus 20 usable in a caregiverassistance system according to the present disclosure is shown inFIG. 1. Although the particular form of patient support apparatus 20illustrated in FIG. 1 is a bed adapted for use in a hospital or othermedical setting, it will be understood that patient support apparatus 20could, in different embodiments, be a cot, a stretcher, a recliner, orany other structure capable of supporting a patient while the patient isin a healthcare facility, such as, but not limited to, a hospital. Forpurposes of the following written description, patient support apparatus20 will be primarily described as a bed with the understanding that thefollowing written description applies to these other types of patientsupport apparatuses.

In general, patient support apparatus 20 includes a base 22 having aplurality of wheels 24, a lift subsystem comprising a pair of lifts 26supported on the base, a litter frame 28 supported on the lifts 26, anda support deck 30 supported on the litter frame 28. Patient supportapparatus 20 further includes a headboard 32, a footboard 34, and aplurality of siderails 36. Siderails 36 are all shown in a raisedposition in FIG. 1 but are each individually movable to a lower positionin which ingress into, and egress out of, patient support apparatus 20is not obstructed by the lowered siderails 36. In some embodiments,siderails 36 may be moved to one or more intermediate positions as well.

Lifts 26 are configured to raise and lower litter frame 28 with respectto base 22. Lifts 26 may be hydraulic actuators, electric actuators, orany other suitable device for raising and lowering litter frame 28 withrespect to base 22. In the illustrated embodiment, lifts 26 are operableindependently so that the tilting of litter frame 28 with respect tobase 22 can also be adjusted. That is, litter frame 28 includes a headend and a foot end, each of whose height can be independently adjustedby the nearest lift 26. Patient support apparatus 20 is designed so thatwhen an occupant lies thereon, his or her head will be positionedadjacent the head end and his or her feet will be positioned adjacentthe foot end.

Litter frame 28 provides a structure for supporting support deck 30, theheadboard 32, footboard 34, and siderails 36. Support deck 30 provides asupport surface for a mattress 38, or other soft cushion, so that aperson may lie and/or sit thereon. Support deck 30 is made of aplurality of sections, some of which are pivotable about generallyhorizontal pivot axes. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, support deck30 includes a head section 40, which is also sometimes referred to as aFowler section or a backrest section. Head section 40 is pivotable abouta generally horizontal pivot axis between a generally horizontalorientation (not shown in FIG. 1) and a plurality of raised positions(one of which is shown in FIG. 1). Support deck 30 may includeadditional sections that are pivotable about one or more horizontalpivot axes, such as an upper leg or thigh section and/or a lower leg orfoot section (not labeled).

Patient support apparatus 20 further includes a plurality of controlpanels 42 that enable a user of patient support apparatus 20, such as apatient and/or an associated caregiver, to control one or more aspectsof patient support apparatus 20. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1,patient support apparatus 20 includes a footboard control panel 42 a, apair of inner siderail control panels 42 b (only one of which isvisible), and a pair of outer siderail control panels 42 c (only one ofwhich is visible). Footboard control panel 42 a and outer siderailcontrol panels 42 c are intended to be used by caregivers, or otherauthorized personnel, while inner siderail control panels 42 b areintended to be used by the patient associated with patient supportapparatus 20. Not all of the control panels 42 include the same controlsand/or functionality. In the illustrated embodiment, footboard controlpanel 42 a includes a substantially complete set of controls forcontrolling patient support apparatus 20 while control panels 42 b and42 c include a selected subset of those controls. One or more of any ofcontrol panels 42 a, b, and/or c may include a height adjustment controlthat, when activated, changes a height of litter frame 28 relative tobase 22.

Control panels 42 a and/or 42 c may include controls for allowing a userto do one or more of the following: activate and deactivate a brake forwheels 24, arm an exit detection system 46, take a weight reading of thepatient, activate and deactivate a propulsion system, and communicatewith a healthcare facility computer network installed in the healthcarefacility in which patient support apparatus 20 is positioned. Innersiderail control panels 42 b may also include a nurse call control thatenables a patient to call a nurse. A speaker and microphone are includedon, or adjacent to, inner siderail control panel 42 b in order to allowthe patient to aurally communicate with the remotely positioned nurse.

Footboard control panel 42 a is implemented in the embodiment shown inFIG. 1 as a touchscreen display 70 having a plurality of controls 72positioned alongside the touchscreen display 70. Controls 72 may beimplemented as buttons, dials, switches, or other devices. Either orboth of control panels 42 b or 42 c may also include a display fordisplaying information regarding patient support apparatus 20, and sucha display may be a touchscreen in some embodiments. Alternatively, anyone or more of control panels 42 a-c may omit a touchscreen display andinstead include only dedicated controls 72, or some other form ofnon-display controls.

The mechanical construction of those aspects of patient supportapparatus 20 not explicitly described herein may be the same as, ornearly the same as, the mechanical construction of the Model FL27InTouch Critical Care bed manufactured and sold by Stryker Corporationof Kalamazoo, Mich. This mechanical construction is described in greaterdetail in the Stryker Maintenance Manual for the Model FL27 InTouchCritical Care Bed (Version 2.4; 2131-409-002 REV B), published byStryker Corporation of Kalamazoo, Mich., the complete disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference. It will be understood bythose skilled in the art that those aspects of patient support apparatus20 not explicitly described herein can alternatively be designed withother types of mechanical constructions, such as, but not limited to,those described in commonly assigned, U.S. Pat. No. 7,690,059 issued toLemire et al., and entitled HOSPITAL BED; and/or commonly assigned U.S.Pat. publication No. 2007/0163045 filed by Becker et al. and entitledPATIENT HANDLING DEVICE INCLUDING LOCAL STATUS INDICATION, ONE-TOUCHFOWLER ANGLE ADJUSTMENT, AND POWER-ON ALARM CONFIGURATION, the completedisclosures of both of which are also hereby incorporated herein byreference. The mechanical construction of those aspects of patientsupport apparatus 20 not explicitly described herein may also take onforms different from what is disclosed in the aforementioned references.

FIG. 2 illustrates a first embodiment of a caregiver assistance system106 according to the present disclosure. Caregiver assistance system 106includes patient support apparatus 20 in communication with a caregiverassistance server 90, and one or more electronic devices 104 that areadapted to communicate with caregiver assistance server 90. Caregiverassistance system 106 may also include a conventional patient supportapparatus server 86 that is separate from caregiver assistance server90, or the functionality of caregiver assistance server 90 may bemodified to include the functionality of patient support apparatusserver 86, thereby allowing patient support apparatus server 86 to beomitted. As will be discussed in greater detail below with respect toFIG. 4, caregiver assistance system 106 communicates with a plurality ofconventional servers on a local area network 74 of the healthcarefacility and uses those communications to obtain some of the informationit needs to perform its caregiver assistance functions.

FIG. 2 illustrates in greater detail some of the internal components ofpatient support apparatus 20. As shown therein, patient supportapparatus 20 includes a controller 48, a memory 50, a first liftactuator 52 a, a second lift actuator 52 b, a brake sensor 54, anscale/exit detection system 46, an Alternating Current (A/C) power input56, an NC power sensor 58, one or more control panels 42, an off-boardnetwork transceiver 60, a nurse call cable interface 62, a plurality ofsiderail sensors 63, and a location transceiver 64. Additionally,patient support apparatus 20 includes a first lift sensor 66 a, a secondlift sensor 66 b, a cable sensor 68, display 70, and one or morecontrols 72 incorporated into one or more of the control panels 42. Itwill be understood by those skilled in the art that patient supportapparatus 20 may be modified to include additional components not shownin FIG. 2, as well modified to include fewer components from what isshown in FIG. 2.

Controller 48 (FIG. 2) is constructed of any electrical component, orgroup of electrical components, that are capable of carrying out thefunctions described herein. In many embodiments, controller 48 is aconventional microcontroller, or group of conventional microcontrollers,although not all such embodiments need include a microcontroller. Ingeneral, controller 48 includes any one or more microprocessors, fieldprogrammable gate arrays, systems on a chip, volatile or nonvolatilememory, discrete circuitry, and/or other hardware, software, or firmwarethat is capable of carrying out the functions described herein, as wouldbe known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Such components can bephysically configured in any suitable manner, such as by mounting themto one or more circuit boards, or arranging them in other manners,whether combined into a single unit or distributed across multiple unitsas part of an embedded network. When implemented to include an embeddednetwork, the embedded network may include multiple nodes thatcommunicate using one or more of the following: a Controller AreaNetwork (CAN); a Local Interconnect Network (LIN); an I-squared-C serialcommunications bus; a serial peripheral interface (SPI) communicationsbus; any of RS-232, RS-422, and/or RS-485 communication interfaces; aLonWorks network, and/or an Ethernet. The instructions followed bycontroller 48 in carrying out the functions described herein, as well asthe data necessary for carrying out these functions, are stored inmemory 50, and/or in one or more other memories accessible to the one ormore microprocessors, microcontrollers, or other programmable componentsof controller 48. Memory 50 also includes a unique identifier 186 thatuniquely identifies the particular patient support apparatus into whichit is incorporated, such as, but not limited to, a serial number.

When controller 48 is implemented to communicate using an on-boardEthernet, the on-board Ethernet may be designed in accordance with anyof the Ethernet-carrying patient support apparatuses disclosed incommonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/622,221 filed Feb.13, 2015, by inventors Krishna Bhimavarapu et al. and entitledCOMMUNICATION METHODS FOR PATIENT HANDLING DEVICES, the completedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In someembodiments, controller 48 may be implemented to include multiple nodesthat communicate with each other utilizing different communicationprotocols. In such embodiments, controller 48 may be implemented inaccordance with any of the embodiments disclosed in commonly assignedU.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/903,477 filed Feb. 23, 2018, byinventors Krishna Bhimavarapu et al. and entitled PATIENT CARE DEVICESWITH ON-BOARD NETWORK COMMUNICATION, the complete disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

First and second lift actuators 52 a and 52 b (FIG. 2) are components oflifts 26 and are configured to raise and lower litter frame 28 withrespect to base 22. A first one of lift actuators 52 a powers a firstone of the lifts 26 positioned adjacent a head end of patient supportapparatus 20 and a second one of lift actuators 52 b powers a second oneof the lifts 26 positioned adjacent a foot end of patient supportapparatus 20. Lift actuators 52 a and 52 b may be conventional linearactuators having electric motors therein that, when driven, expand orcontract the length of the linear actuator, thereby moving the litterframe upward or downward and changing its height H (FIG. 1) relative tothe floor.

Each lift actuator 52 a and 52 b includes a corresponding lift sensor 66a and 66 b, respectively. Each of the sensors 66 a, 66 b detects aposition and/or angle of its associated actuator 52 a, 52 b and feedsthe sensed position/angle to controller 48. Controller 48 uses theoutputs from sensors 66 as inputs into a closed-loop feedback system forcontrolling the motion of the actuators 52 a, 52 b and the litter deck.Controller 48 also uses the outputs from sensors 66 a, 66 b to determinethe height H of litter frame 28 above the floor. In some embodiments,actuators 52 are constructed in any of the same manners as the actuators34 disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/449,277 filed Mar. 3, 2017, by inventors Anish Paul et al. andentitled PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUS WITH ACTUATOR FEEDBACK, the completedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In suchembodiments, sensors 66 a and 66 b may be constructed to include any ofthe encoders and/or switch sensors disclosed in the aforementioned '277application.

Scale/exit detection system 46 is configured to determine a weight of apatient positioned on support deck 30 and/or when the patient is movingand is likely to exit patient support apparatus 20. The particularstructural details of the exit detection system can vary widely. In someembodiments, scale/exit detection system 46 includes a plurality of loadcells arranged to detect the weight exerted on litter frame 28. Bysumming the outputs from each of the load cells, the total weight of thepatient is determined (after subtracting the tare weight). Further, byusing the known position of each of the load cells, controller 48determines a center of gravity of the patient and monitors the center ofgravity for movement beyond one or more thresholds. One method ofcomputing the patient's center of gravity from the output of such loadcells is described in more detail in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.5,276,432 issued to Travis and entitled PATIENT EXIT DETECTION MECHANISMFOR HOSPITAL BED, the complete disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference. Other methods for determining a patient's weightand/or the weight of non-patient objects supported on litter frame 28are disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/776,842, filed Sep. 15, 2015, by inventors Michael Hayes et al. andentitled PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUS WITH PATIENT INFORMATION SENSORS, andcommonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/873,734 filed Oct.2, 2015, by inventors Marko Kostic et al. and entitled PATIENT SUPPORTAPPARATUSES WITH MOTION MONITORING, the complete disclosures of both ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference. Other systems fordetermining a patient's weight and/or detecting a patient's exit frompatient support apparatus 20 may alternatively be used.

Controller 48 communicates with network transceiver 60 (FIG. 2) which,in at least one embodiment, is a Wi-Fi radio communication moduleconfigured to wirelessly communicate with wireless access points 76 oflocal area network 74. In such embodiments, network transceiver 60 mayoperate in accordance with any of the various IEEE 802.11 standards(e.g. 802.11b, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11ac, 802.11ah, etc.). In otherembodiments, network transceiver 60 may include, either additionally orin lieu of the Wi-Fi radio and communication module, a wired port forconnecting a network wire to patient support apparatus 20. In some suchembodiments, the wired port accepts a category 5e cable (Cat-5e), acategory 6 or 6a (Cat-6 or Cat-6a), a category 7 (Cat-7) cable, or somesimilar network cable, and transceiver 60 is an Ethernet transceiver. Instill other embodiments, network transceiver 60 may be constructed toinclude the functionality of the communication modules 56 disclosed incommonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/831,466 filed Dec.5, 2017, by inventor Michael Hayes et al. and entitled NETWORKCOMMUNICATION FOR PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUSES, the complete disclosureof which is incorporated herein by reference.

Regardless of the specific structure included with network transceiver60, controller 48 is able to communicate with the local area network 74(FIG. 2) of a healthcare facility in which the patient support apparatusis positioned. When network transceiver 60 is a wireless transceiver, itcommunicates with local area network 74 via one or more wireless accesspoints 76. When network transceiver 60 is a wired transceiver, itcommunicates directly via a cable coupled between patient supportapparatus 20 and a network outlet positioned within the room of thehealthcare facility in which patient support apparatus 20 is positioned.As will be discussed in greater detail below with respect to FIG. 4,local area network 74 includes a plurality of servers that are utilizedin different manners by the caregiver assistance system disclosedherein, and patient support apparatus 20 communicates with one or moreof those servers via transceiver 60 as part of the caregiver assistancesystem.

Nurse call cable interface 62 is an interface adapted to couple to oneend of a nurse call cable 78 (FIG. 4). The other end of the nurse callcable 78 couples to a nurse call outlet 82 (FIG. 4) that is typicallybuilt into each headwall of each of the patient rooms within ahealthcare facility. In many embodiments, nurse call outlet 82 is a 37pin outlet that cable 78 couples to, thereby enabling patient supportapparatus 20 to communicate directly with a conventional nurse callsystem 80. In some embodiments, nurse call interface 62 is constructedin accordance with any of the cable interfaces 92 disclosed in commonlyassigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/945,437 filed Apr. 4, 2018,by inventors Krishna Bhimavarapu et al. and entitled PATIENT SUPPORTAPPARATUSES WITH RECONFIGURABLE COMMUNICATION, the complete disclosureof which is incorporated herein by reference. In other embodiments,nurse call cable interface 62 may be replaced with a wireless nurse callcommunication system that wirelessly communicates with nurse call outlet82. For example, in some embodiments, nurse call cable interface 62 isreplaced with a radio module, such as the radio module 60 disclosed incommonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/819,844 filed Aug.6, 2015, by inventors Krishna Bhimavarapu et al. and entitled PATIENTSUPPORT APPARATUSES WITH WIRELESS HEADWALL COMMUNICATION, the completedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In suchwireless headwall embodiments, a headwall module, such as headwallmodule 38 disclosed in the aforementioned '844 application, is includedand coupled to nurse call outlet 82. Still other types of wirelesscommunication between the patient support apparatus and nurse calloutlet 82 may be implemented.

Siderail sensors 63, which may be conventional siderail sensors, areconfigured to detect when the siderails 36 are in a raised or loweredposition. In most embodiments, a single siderail sensor 63 is includedfor each of the siderails 36. Therefore, in the embodiment of FIG. 1,patient support apparatus 20 includes four siderail sensors 63, one fordetecting the position of each of the four siderails 36. In alternativeembodiments, more than one siderail sensor 63 may be included for eachsiderail 36, such as a first siderail sensor 63 that detects when thesiderail is raised and/or locked in its raised position, and a secondsiderail sensor 63 that detects when the siderail 36 is in its lowerposition, and/or locked in its lowered position. In general, any switchor other type of sensor that is able to detect when the respectivesiderail 36 is in its raised and/or locked orientation can be used withpatient support apparatus 20. The outputs of siderail sensors 63 are fedto controller 48 and are periodically sent to caregiver assistanceserver 90 as part of the patient support apparatus status updates thatare discussed in greater detail below. Further, as will also bediscussed in greater detail below, the position of one or more siderails36 is monitored for compliance with a desired state, such as, but notlimited to, a desired state defined by a fall risk reduction protocol 93discussed in more detail below.

Location transceiver 64 (FIG. 2) is adapted to detect a wireless signalemitted from a nearby location beacon 84 (FIG. 4) that is positioned ata fixed and known location within the healthcare facility. Although FIG.4 only illustrates a single one of these location beacons 84, it will beunderstood that a particular healthcare facility includes many of theselocation beacons 84 mounted throughout the healthcare facility. Eachlocation beacon 84 broadcasts a wireless, short range signal thatcontains a unique identifier. The short range signal, in someembodiments, is broadcast via an infrared transmitter and is onlydetectable by receivers (e.g. location transceivers 64) that arepositioned within several feet of the location beacon 84. Consequently,location transceivers 64, which are adapted to detect the signalstransmitted from location beacons 84, are only able to detect thesesignals when patient support apparatuses 20 are positioned adjacent(e.g. within several feet) of one of these location beacons 84. If/whenlocation transceiver 64 is able to detect the unique signal from aparticular location beacon 84, the corresponding patient supportapparatus 20 can therefore be concluded to be currently positionedadjacent that particular location beacon 84. This allows the currentlocation of the patient support apparatus 20 to be identified. In somehealthcare facilities, one or more of the patient rooms may not becompletely private rooms, but instead may be shared with one or moreother patients. In such situations, it is typical to mount two or morelocation beacons 84 within such a room—one on the headwall at the baywhere the first patient support apparatus 20 normally resides and theother on the headwall at the bay where the second patient supportapparatus 20 normally resides (and still more if the room is shared bymore than two patients).

When location transceiver 64 receives a signal from an adjacent locationbeacon 84, controller 48 forwards the received signal, including theunique ID of the beacon 84, to a patient support apparatus server 86(FIG. 2) which is sometimes alternately referred to herein as a bedserver 86. Patient support apparatus server 86 includes a location table88 (FIG. 4), or has access to such a table 88, that correlates beaconIDs to locations within the healthcare facility. Patient supportapparatus server 86 is thereby able to determine the location of eachpatient support apparatus 20 within the healthcare facility (at leastall of those that are positioned adjacent a location beacon 84).

In some embodiments, location beacons 84 (FIG. 2) function both aslocators and as wireless links to the nurse call outlet 82 integratedinto the adjacent headwall. When equipped with this dual function,patient support apparatuses 20 may omit the nurse call cable interface62, yet still be able to communicate with the nurse call system server62 b. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 4, however, patient supportapparatus 20 includes a nurse call cable 78 that communicatively couplesthe patient support apparatus 20 to nurse call outlet 82, therebyenabling the patient support apparatus 20 to communicate directly withthe nurse call system 80. Further details about the function of locationbeacons 84, whether operating solely as locators or both as locators andwireless portals to the nurse call system outlets 82, may be found inany of the following commonly assigned U.S. patent references: U.S. Pat.No. 8,102,254 issued Jan. 24, 2012 to Becker et al. and entitledLOCATION DETECTION SYSTEM FOR A PATIENT HANDLING DEVICE; patentapplication Ser. No. 14/819,844 filed Aug. 6, 2015, by inventors KrishnaBhimavarapu et al. and entitled PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUSES WITHWIRELESS HEADWALL COMMUNICATION; patent application Ser. No. 62/600,000filed Dec. 18, 2017, by inventor Alex Bodurka, and entitled SMARTHOSPITAL HEADWALL SYSTEM; and patent application Ser. No. 62/598,787filed Dec. 14, 2017, by inventors Alex Bodurka et al. and entitledHOSPITAL HEADWALL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, the complete disclosures of allof which are incorporated herein by reference.

Controller 48 of patient support apparatus 20 (FIG. 2) communicates withNC power sensor 58, which informs controller 48 whether or not an NCpower cable 102 (FIG. 4) is coupled between patient support apparatus 20and a conventional NC power outlet 44. In other words, NC power sensor58 lets controller 48 know whether patient support apparatus 20 isreceiving electrical power from an off-board power supply (e.g. poweroutlet 44). In some cases, patient support apparatus 20 includes one ormore batteries that are able to power patient support apparatus 20,including controller 48, when patient support apparatus 20 is notcoupled to a source of electrical power. As will be discussed morebelow, the status of the NC power cord 102 (e.g. whether patient supportapparatus 20 is operating on battery power or on power from an NCoutlet) is communicated from A/C power sensor 58 to controller 48, whichthen forwards that status via network transceiver 60 to patient supportapparatus server 86 and/or to caregiver assistance server 90.

Controller 48 also communicates with brake sensor 54 (FIG. 2). Brakesensor 54 informs controller 48 whether or not a brake has been appliedon patient support apparatus 20. When the brake is applied, one or moreof wheels 24 are braked to resist rotation. When the brake is notapplied, wheels 24 are free to rotate. As with the data from the NCpower cord 58, the data from the brake sensor 54 is forwarded bycontroller 48 to patient support apparatus server 86 and/or to caregiverassistance server 90, via network transceiver 60. Caregiver assistanceserver 90 shares this information with caregivers via one or moreelectronic devices that are in communication with server 90, as will bediscussed in greater detail below.

Each of the control panels 42 includes one or more controls 72 that areused to control various functions of the patient support apparatus 20(FIG. 2). For example, one or more of the control panels 42 includes amotion control 72 for controlling movement of the lift actuators 52 aand 52 b. Additional controls 72 may be provided for activating anddeactivating the brake for wheels 24, arming and disarming exitdetection function of scale/exit detection system 46, taking a weightreading of the patient using the scale function of scale/exit detectionsystem 46, activating and deactivating a propulsion system (ifincluded), and communicating with one or more servers on local areanetwork 74. It will be understood that in some embodiments, one or moreof controls 72 may be integrated into a touchscreen display, such asdisplay 70. In such embodiments, one or more of the controls may onlyappear when the user navigates to specific screens displayed on thetouchscreen.

Patient support apparatus 20 communicates with the caregiver assistanceserver 90 of local area network 74 (FIG. 2). Caregiver assistance server90 is adapted to assist the caregivers in performing a plurality oftasks. In general, caregiver assistance server 90 includes softwarethat, when executed, assists the caregivers in ensuring that the patientsupport apparatuses 20 are maintained in a desirable state, assists thecaregiver in performing their rounding tasks, assists the caregivers inperforming fall and/or skin assessments, assists the caregivers withsetting reminders and receiving notifications of the reminders, as wellas assists the caregivers with receiving alerts and/or statusinformation about the patients under their care while the caregivers goabout their duties.

Caregiver assistance server 90 includes a memory 91 storing various dataused by server 90, such as, but not limited to, a caregiver assistanceapplication 124 and a fall risk reduction protocol 93. Memory 91 may bephysically included within server 90 and/or it may be distributed acrossone or more other physical locations that are accessible to server 90.Caregiver assistance application 124 uses the fall risk reductionprotocol 93 when application 124 executes the patient fall riskreduction algorithm 143, as will be discussed in greater detail below.In general, patient fall risk reduction algorithm 143 enables acaregiver to utilize one or more of the electronic devices 104 to assessthe fall risk of a patient and to subsequently ensure that the patientsupport apparatus 20 is in a state specified by the healthcare facilityfor that patient's particular fall risk. Fall risk reduction protocol 93specifies the desired state of patient support apparatus 20 for one ormore fall risk levels.

FIG. 3 illustrates in greater detail some of the specific functionalityand components of caregiver assistance server 90. Caregiver assistanceserver 90 is adapted to execute a caregiver assistance application 124that performs a plurality of algorithms and that utilizes a plurality ofcomponents. The algorithms includes a caregiver rounding algorithm 140,a patient skin care algorithm 141, a patient fall risk reductionalgorithm 143, a reminder algorithm 145, a status/command algorithm 147,and an alerting algorithm 149.

Caregiver rounding algorithm 140 assists a caregiver in performing hisor her rounding duties, as well as assisting the caregiver to ensurethat patient support apparatuses 20 are properly configured inaccordance with the policies of the particular healthcare facility thatemploys the caregivers and operates the patient support apparatuses 20.In general, caregiver rounding algorithm 140 allows a caregiver todocument his or her individual rounding actions while simultaneouslyreminding the caregiver of any actions that need to be taken toconfigure the patient support apparatus 20 properly. Such patientsupport apparatus configurations include, but are not limited to,setting a brake, moving the litter frame to its lowest height (or withina specified range of its lowest height), positioning the siderails in acorrect position, arming the exit detection system, plugging in thenurse call cable, plugging in the NC power cable, and/or arming apatient support apparatus monitoring system.

Patient skin care algorithm 141 assists the caregiver in assessing aparticular patient's risk of developing bed sores and/or in managing thecare of a patient's existing bed sores. Fall risk reduction algorithm143 assists the caregiver in assessing the fall risk of a particularpatient and/or in ensuring that patient support apparatus 20 is placedin a desired state for reducing the risk of a patient falling. Reminderalgorithm 145 assists the caregiver by keeping track of any or all tasksthat the caregiver is to complete that have time deadlines, includingissuing reminders to the caregiver of when those tasks are due and/orare approaching their deadlines. Status/command algorithm 147 functionsto provide the caregivers with up-to-date information of the status ofeach of the patient support apparatuses 20 having a patient to whichthat caregiver is assigned, as well as to allow the caregiver toremotely control one or more aspects of those patient supportapparatuses 20. Alerting algorithm 149 provides alerts to caregiverswhen a status of a patient support apparatus 20 is changed to anout-of-compliance state, when a reminder deadline approaches or isreach, and/or whenever any information from any of the other algorithms140, 141, 143, 145, and/or 147 yields information to which thecaregivers should be alerted.

Further details of one embodiment of a patient skin care algorithm 141(FIG. 3) that may be utilized with the system 106 of the presentdisclosure are found in commonly assigned U.S. provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 62/826,195, filed Mar. 29, 2019, by inventorsThomas Durlach et al. and entitled SYSTEM FOR MANAGING PATIENT SUPPORTAPPARATUSES AND BED SORE RISKS, the complete disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference. Other skin care algorithms may beexecuted by caregiver assistance application 124 without departing fromthe spirit of the present disclosure. Further details of variousembodiments of patient fall risk reduction algorithm 143 are discussedbelow with respect to FIGS. 18-27. Further details regarding a suitablereminder algorithm 145, status/command algorithm 147, and an alertingalgorithm 149 are also provided below.

The different components of caregiver assistance application 124 includea set of local rules 126, a data repository 128, a communicationinterface 130, and a web Application Programming Interface 132 (FIG. 3).The set of local rules 126 is initially defined prior to theinstallation of caregiver assistance application 124 within a particularhealthcare facility, in at least some embodiments. In other embodiments,the set of local rules 126 is defined during or after installation ofcaregiver assistance application 124. In all embodiments discussedherein, however, local rules 126 are modifiable by authorized personnelfrom the healthcare facility. Such modifications are made by way of oneor more computers 134 that are in communication with local area network74 (FIG. 4). An authorized individual 136 (FIG. 4) utilizes computer 134to communicate with caregiver assistance application 124 and add,delete, or modify one or more of the local rules 126.

Local rules 126 (FIG. 3) include, but are not limited to, the following:rules indicating how frequently caregivers are to perform their roundingduties (e.g. once every two hours, once every three hours, etc.); rulesindicating what state patient support apparatuses 20 are to be placed in(e.g. one or more fall risk reduction protocols and/or skin careprotocols, etc.); rules specifying who is to be notified, and when, if arounding duty is not performed within the desired time period; rulesspecifying who is to be notified, and when, if a patient supportapparatuses is not placed in the desired state and/or is moved out ofthe desired state; rules specifying how such notifications are to becommunicated (e.g. email, phone call, texts, etc.); rules specifyingwhat personnel within the healthcare facility are authorized to viewwhat data using caregiver assistance application 124; and rulesspecifying if and/or how rounding duties are to be verified and/ordocumented in the EMR server 98. Both the rules for caregiver assistancefrequency and the desired states of the patient support apparatuses 20may be configured by authorized individuals 136 to vary based upon oneor more factors. For example, both the caregiver assistance frequencyand desired states of patient support apparatuses may vary for differentwings of the healthcare facility, different units of the healthcarefacility, different times of day and/or different shifts, differentmodels of patient support apparatuses, different patient healthconditions, different patient treatments, different data stored in theEMR server 98, etc.

Local rules 126 (FIG. 3) also include additional administrative datathat is stored on caregiver assistance server 90, or stored in a memoryotherwise accessible to caregiver assistance application 124. Suchadministrative data includes, but is not limited to, the IP address, orother network address, of each of the servers with which caregiverassistance application 124 is to communicate (e.g. EMR server 98, ADTserver 94, patient support apparatus server 86, RTLS server 100, andnurse call server 96), and/or the IP addresses or other configurationdata necessary for caregiver assistance application 124 to communicatewith one or more middleware software applications that act as gatewaysto one or more of these servers. The administrative data also may alsoinclude the email addresses, passwords, phone numbers, user names,access levels, and other information about those hospital personnel whohave been authorized to use caregiver assistance application 124. Theemail address and/or phone numbers are used in some embodiments of thealerting algorithm 149 in order for caregiver assistance application 124to make contact with mobile electronic devices 104 a (FIG. 4) carried bythe caregivers when there is an alert, or other information to which thecaregiver's attention is desirably directed.

Data repository 128 (FIG. 3) stores data that is received by caregiverassistance application 124 during the course of its operation. This dataincludes patient support apparatus status data sent from patient supportapparatuses 20 (via patient support apparatus server 86 in someembodiments, and directly in other embodiments), alert data (e.g. whenalerts occurred, causes, remedies, notifications, etc.), roundingcompletion/incompletion data, verification data verifying caregiverassistance (discussed more below), patient data from skin care and fallrisk reduction algorithms 141 and 143, and other data.

Communication interface 130 (FIG. 3) controls the communications betweencaregiver assistance application 124 and the electronic devices 104 withwhich it is in communication. Communication interface 130 also controlsthe communications between caregiver assistance application 124 and theservers with which it is in communication. All of these communications,in at least one embodiment, are carried out using conventional Internetpacket routing. That is, patient support apparatuses 20 send data inpackets that have an IP addresses corresponding to patient supportapparatus server 86 and/or caregiver assistance server 90, and servers86 and/or 90 send message packets back to patient support apparatuses 20that include an IP address corresponding to the particular patientsupport apparatus(es) 20 to which the messages are intended. In someembodiments, each patient support apparatus 20 includes a static IPaddress that is stored on the patient support apparatus 20, while inother embodiments, the patient support apparatuses 20 consult a localDynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server (not shown) on localarea network 74 and the DHCP server assigns a network address to thepatient support apparatus.

Web API 132 (FIG. 3) provides a portal for authorized softwareapplications and/or servers to access the data of caregiver assistanceapplication 124. In some embodiments, electronic devices 104 communicatewith caregiver assistance application 124 via the web API 132. In otherembodiments, electronic devices 104 utilize a web browser built thereinthat access one or more Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) that direct theweb browser to caregiver assistance application 124. In still otherembodiments, web API 132 may be utilized for carrying out additionalcommunications with any of the servers on network 74 and/or forcommunicating with other software applications that are unrelated tocaregiver assistance application 124.

In general, caregiver rounding algorithm 140, status/command algorithm147, and alerting algorithm 149 of caregiver assistance application 124performs the following functions: gather data from patient supportapparatuses 20 about their current states; communicate the patientsupport apparatus data to electronic devices 104 that are remote fromcaregiver assistance server 90; cause the electronic devices 104 todisplay the patient support apparatus status data thereon; cause theelectronic devices 104 to display reminders and/or other information ontheir displays to assist caregivers in performing their rounding duties;receive rounding data that is input into electronic devices 104 bycaregivers during or after the performance of their rounding duties;communicate alerts to the caregivers if the patient support apparatusstatus data indicates the patient support apparatus 20 is not in adesired state; forward patient support apparatus commands received fromcaregivers (via electronic devices 104) to patient support apparatuses20; receive verification data from electronic devices 104 and/or patientsupport apparatuses 20 verifying the caregivers' presence adjacent thepatient support apparatus 20 when performing the rounding tasks; anddocument to an Electronic Medical Record server 98 (FIG. 4) thesuccessful completion of the rounding tasks, as well as the currentstate of the patient support apparatus status data at the time ofcompletion of the rounding task. It will be understood that, in someembodiments, caregiver assistance application 124 may be modified suchthat one or more of these functions are modified, supplemented, and/oromitted.

Patient support apparatus 20 is shown in FIG. 2 positioned in a room 92of a representative example of a healthcare facility. FIG. 2 alsodepicts patient support apparatus 20 in communication with local areanetwork 74 of the healthcare facility. It will be understood that theprecise structure and contents of the local area network 74 will varyfrom healthcare facility to healthcare facility. FIG. 4 illustrates ingreater detail the contents of a common hospital's local area network74, along with caregiver assistance server 90 and other components ofcaregiver assistance system 106.

As shown in FIG. 4, local area network 74 includes a plurality ofservers, including a conventional Admission, Discharge, and Tracking(ADT) server 94, a conventional nurse call system server 96, aconventional Electronic Medical Records server 98, a conventional realtime location system (RTLS) server 100, and a plurality of conventionalwireless access points 76. Local area network 74 also includes caregiverassistance server 90 that, together with one or more patient supportapparatuses 20 and one or more electronic devices (e.g. mobileelectronic devices 104 a or stationary electronic devices 104 b)implement one embodiment of the caregiver assistance system 106according to the present disclosure. Still further, network 74 includesa conventional Internet gateway 108 that couples local area network 74to the Internet 110, thereby enabling the servers and/or patient supportapparatuses 20 to communicate with computers outside of the healthcarefacility, such as, but not limited to, a geographically remote server112. In some embodiments, all or some of the functions of caregiverassistance server 90 are carried out by geographically remote server112, while in other embodiments caregiver assistance server 90 isconfigured to implement all of its functions without accessinggeographically remote server 112.

ADT server 94 stores patient information, including the identity ofpatients and the corresponding rooms 92 and/or bays within rooms towhich the patients are assigned. That is, ADT server 94 includes apatient-room assignment table 114, or functional equivalent to such atable. The patient-room assignment table correlates rooms, as well asbays within multi-patient rooms, to the names of individual patientswithin the healthcare facility. The patient's names are entered into theADT server 94 by one or more healthcare facility staff whenever apatient checks into the healthcare facility and the patient is assignedto a particular room within the healthcare facility. If and/or when apatient is transferred to a different room and/or discharged from thehealthcare facility, the staff of the healthcare facility update ADTserver 94. ADT server therefore maintains an up-to-date table 114 thatcorrelates patient names with their assigned rooms.

EMR server 98 (FIG. 4) stores individual patient records. Such patientrecords identify a patient by name and the medical informationassociated with that patient. Such medical information may include allof the medical information generated from the patient's current stay inthe healthcare facility as well as medical information from previousvisits. EMR table 116 shows an abbreviated example of two types ofmedical information entries that are commonly found within a patient'smedical records: a fall risk entry indicating whether the patient is afall risk, and a bed sore risk entry indicating whether the patient isat risk for developing bed sores. Although FIG. 4 shows the data forthese entries to be expressed as text, it will be understood that thisdata may be stored within a medical record in numeric format. Forexample, the fall risk data may be stored as a numeric value generatedfrom a conventional fall risk assessment tool, such as, but not limitedto, the Morse fall risk scale or the Hester-Davis fall risk scale.Similarly, the bed sore data may be stored as a numeric value generatedfrom a conventional bed sore risk assessment tool, such as, but notlimited to, the Braden scale. As noted, EMR server 98 includes far moreadditional information in the medical records of each patient than whatis shown in table 116 of FIG. 4, and some of that additional data, suchas rounding data, is discussed in more detail below. It will beunderstood that the term “EMR server,” as used herein, also includesElectronic Health Records servers, or EHR servers for short, and thatthe present disclosure does not distinguish between electronic medicalrecords and electronic health records.

RTLS server 100 (FIG. 4) is a conventional server that may be presentwithin a given healthcare facility. When present, RTLS server 100 keepstrack of the current location of people and equipment within thehealthcare facility. In many instances, the RTLS server keeps track ofthe current location of one or more tags 120 (FIG. 4) that are worn bypersonnel and/or that are attached to equipment. Such tags 120 may be RFID tags, or other types of tags. RTLS table 118 provides an example ofthe type of location data that RTLS server 100 may contain with respectto caregivers. As shown therein, table 118 shows the current location oftwo caregivers, one by room number (e.g. room 400) and another bygeneral location (e.g. “hallway”). Other types of location data may beincluded. Further, as noted, some healthcare facilities may not includesuch an RTLS server 100 and caregiver assistance system 106 is able tofully function without such a server.

Nurse call server 96 is shown in FIG. 4 to include a caregiverassignment table 122 that matches caregivers to specific rooms and/orbays within the healthcare facility. Although table 122 only showscaregivers assigned to a single room, it will be understood that eachcaregiver is typically assigned to multiple rooms. In some nurse callsystems 80, caregivers are assigned to specific patients, rather than tospecific rooms. Caregiver assistance system 106 is configured to workwith both types of nurse call systems 80. Caregiver assistance system106 is also adapted to work with healthcare facilities that utilize aseparate caregiver assignment server (not shown), rather than nurse callserver 96, to assign caregivers to rooms and/or patients.

Regardless of whether caregiver assignment table 122 is stored withinnurse call server 96 or some other server on network 74, nurse callsystem server 96 is configured to communicate with caregivers andpatients. That is, whenever a patient on a patient support apparatus 20presses, or otherwise activates, a nurse call, the nurse call signalspass through nurse call cable 78 to nurse call outlet 82. Nurse calloutlet 82 is coupled via wire to nurse call server 96 and/or to anotherstructure of nurse call system 80 that then routes the call to theappropriate nurse. The nurse is thereby able to communicate with thepatient from a remote location. In some nurse call systems 80, nursecall server 96 is also able to forward alerts and/or othercommunications to portable wireless devices carried by caregivers and/orto audio stations positioned within patient rooms 92. Such portablewireless devices are the same as mobile electronic devices 104 adiscussed herein, in at least one embodiment.

Local area network 74 may include additional structures not shown inFIG. 4, such as, but not limited to, one or more conventional work flowservers and/or charting servers that monitor and/or schedulepatient-related tasks for particular caregivers, and/or one or moreconventional communication servers that forward communications toparticular individuals within the healthcare facility, such as via oneor more portable devices (smart phones, pagers, beepers, laptops, etc.).The forwarded communications may include data and/or alerts thatoriginate from patient support apparatuses 20 as well as data and/oralerts that originate from caregiver assistance server 90.

Wireless access points 76 are configured, in at least some embodiments,to operate in accordance with any one or more of the IEEE 802.11standards (e.g. 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ah, etc.). As such, patientsupport apparatuses 20 and electronic devices 104 a, 104 b that areequipped with Wi-Fi capabilities, and that have the proper authorizationcredentials (e.g. password, SSID, etc.), can access local area network74 and the servers hosted thereon. This allows patient support apparatus20 to send messages to, and receive messages from, patient supportapparatus server 86 and/or caregiver assistance server 90. This alsoallows electronic devices 104 to send messages to, and receive messagesfrom, patient support apparatus server 86 and/or caregiver assistanceserver 90. As noted previously, alternatively, or additionally, patientsupport apparatuses 20 may include a wired port for coupling a wiredcable (e.g. a Category 5, Category 5e, etc.) between the patient supportapparatus 20 and one or more routers/gateways/switches, etc. of network74, thereby allowing patient support apparatuses 20 to communicate viawired communications with servers 86 and/or 90.

In still other embodiments, one or more of the patient supportapparatuses 20 are equipped with alternative wireless transceiversenabling them to communicate directly with patient support apparatusserver 86 and/or caregiver assistance server 90 via an antenna andtransceiver that is directly coupled to servers 86 and/or 90 and that isseparate from LAN 74, thereby allowing patient support apparatuses 20 tobypass LAN 74 in their communications with servers 86 and/or 90. Oneexample of patient support apparatuses equipped to communicate directlywith a server on a healthcare facility's local area network withoututilizing the LAN is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/831,466 filed Dec. 5, 2017, by inventors MichaelHayes and entitled NETWORK COMMUNICATION FOR PATIENT SUPPORTAPPARATUSES, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference. In some embodiments, patient support apparatuses 20 includecommunication modules, such as the communication modules 66 disclosed inthe aforementioned '466 application, and servers 86 and/or 90 arecoupled directly to a receiver, such as the enterprise receiver 90disclosed in the aforementioned '466 application. In such embodiments,patient support apparatuses 20 are able to both send and receivemessages directly to and from servers 86 and/or 90 without utilizingaccess points 76 or any of the hardware of network 74 (other thanservers 86 and/or 90).

Caregiver assistance server 90 constructs a table 218 (FIG. 4) thatcorrelates specific caregivers with the patient support apparatuses 20assigned to them. As shown in FIG. 4, table 218 correlates individualpatient support apparatuses 20 and their current statuses to thespecific caregivers who are assigned to those patient supportapparatuses 20. Although not shown in FIG. 4, table 218 also maycorrelate caregivers and their patient support apparatuses 20 tospecific rooms within the healthcare facility. In order to constructtable 218, caregiver assistance application 124 receives the uniquepatient support apparatus identifiers 186, along with the current statusof the patient support apparatuses 20 from patient support apparatusserver 86. Caregiver assistance application 124 determines whichcaregivers are associated with each of these patient support apparatuses20 based on the caregiver-to-room assignment data it receives from nursecall server 96 (i.e. the data of table 122) and the room-to-patientsupport apparatus data it receives from patient support apparatus server86 (i.e. the data from table 88). Caregiver assistance server 90 istherefore supplied with sufficient data to know the current status ofeach patient support apparatus 20, the room in which each patientsupport apparatus 20 is assigned, the caregiver assigned to that roomand/or patient support apparatus 20, the patient assigned to eachpatient support apparatus 20, and the fall risk and/or bed sore risk (ifknown) of each patient. Still further, in those embodiments where anRTLS server 100 is included, caregiver assistance server 90 is alsosupplied with sufficient data to know the current location of eachcaregiver.

FIG. 5 illustrates a general algorithm 226 executed by caregiverassistance application 124 in at least one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. General algorithm 226 is carried out by the one or moreprocessors of caregiver assistance server 90 when caregiver assistanceserver 90 is executing caregiver assistance application 124. Generalalgorithm 226 begins at an initial access step 142 where a user accessescaregiver assistance application 124. Initial step 142 is illustrated inFIG. 5 as a window having dashed lines. The dashed lines are presentedin order to indicate that step 142 is performed by a user, rather thancaregiver assistance application 124 itself. The remaining steps ofalgorithm 226 are carried out by caregiver assistance application 124.

Initial step 142 is carried out by a user by manipulating one of theelectronic devices 104 that are used in conjunction with caregiverassistance application 124. Caregiver assistance system 106 includes oneor more electronic devices 104 that communicate with caregiverassistance server 90 and its caregiver assistance application 124. Theseelectronic devices 104 utilize caregiver assistance application 124 toreceive status data from patient support apparatuses 20 and to send andreceive caregiver assistance data. In other words, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 functions as an intermediary between the electronicdevices 104 and the patient support apparatuses 20, as well as anintermediary between the electronic devices 104 and other servers, suchas EMR server 98 and/or the nurse call server 96. Caregiver assistanceapplication 124 also performs other functions, as described below.

Electronic devices 104 come in a variety of different forms. As shown inFIG. 4, some electronic devices 104 a are mobile electronic devicesintended to be carried by a user (e.g. caregiver) while other electronicdevices 104 b are stationary electronic devices that generally remain inone location. Mobile electronic devices 104 a may take on differentforms, such as, but not limited to, smart phones, tables, laptopcomputers, Computers on Wheels (COWs), and others. Stationary electronicdevices 104 b may also take on different forms, such as, but not limitedto, televisions, displays, Personal Computers (PCs), and others. Forpurposes of the following written description, caregiver assistancesystem 106 will be described with reference to electronic devices 104that access caregiver assistance system 106 via a conventional webbrowser. It will be understood, however, that in other embodiments,electronic devices 104 may be modified to execute a specialized softwareapplication that is downloaded to the electronic device 104 and that istailored to be executed by the particular operating system of theelectronic device (e.g. Android, iOS, Windows, etc.). The specializedsoftware application is executed by the microcontroller(s) of theelectronic device 104 and carries out the functions of caregiverassistance system 106.

In order for a caregiver associated with an electronic device 104 toaccess caregiver assistance system 106, the caregiver utilizes theweb-browsing application contained within the electronic device 104 togo to a particular web page, or other URL, associated with caregiverassistance application 124. Any conventional web-browsing software maybe used for this purpose, including, but not limited to, Microsoft'sBing or Internet Explorer web browsers, Google's Chrome web browser,Apple's Safari web browser, Mozilla's Firefox web browser, etc. Theparticular URL accessed with the web browser may vary for differenthealthcare facilities and can be customized by authorized IT personnelat the healthcare facility. In some embodiments, a domain name may beassociated with caregiver assistance application 124 that is resolved bya local DNS server to the IP address of caregiver assistance server 90(e.g. www.caregiver-assistance-app.com). In other embodiments, access tocaregiver assistance system 106 may be achieved in other manners.

Once at the initial web page corresponding to caregiver assistanceapplication 124, caregiver assistance application 124 instructs the webbrowser of the electronic device 104 to display a login screen on thedisplay of the electronic device 104. FIG. 7 illustrates an example ofsuch a login screen 144. Login screen 144 is shown in FIG. 7 as beingdisplayed on a mobile electronic device (smart phone) 104 a. This isdone merely for purposes of illustrating one specific type of electronicdevice 104 with which caregiver assistance system 106 may be utilized.Other types of devices 104 may be used and FIGS. 8-17 depictillustrative screens of caregiver assistance system 106 that do not showthe specific type of electronic device 104 on which they are displayed,which is intended to re-emphasize the device agnostic nature ofcaregiver assistance system 106.

Login screen 144 includes a username field 146 in which a user is askedto input his or her username, as well as a password field 148 in whichthe user is asked to input his or her password. In order for the user toinput this information, he or she utilizes the conventional inputfeatures of the electronic device 104. Thus, for example, when theelectronic device 104 includes a touch screen display and the usertouches or otherwise selects either of the fields 146, 148, theelectronic device 104 shows on its display, in some embodiments, animage of an alphanumeric keyboard that can be used by the user to inputhis or her username and password. After this information is typed intofields 146, 148, the user either presses the “enter” or “return” button,or touches the login icon 150 shown on login screen 144. If electronicdevice 104 does not include a touch screen display, the user may enterthe username and login information using a conventional keyboard, amouse or other pointer, or other methods.

Caregiver assistance application 124 receives the user's username andpassword at step 152 of general algorithm 226 (FIG. 5). That is, theentry of the user's username and password into electronic device 104 iscommunicated by the electronic device 104 to caregiver assistance server90. As was noted, this may be done in a conventional manner utilizingthe WiFi, or other network communication, abilities of the electronicdevice 104. Once caregiver assistance application 124 receives theusername and password, it consults rules repository 126 to see if theusername and password match an approved user. As mentioned previously,local rules repository contains information input into application 124by an authorized representative of the healthcare facility in whichcaregiver assistance application 124 is installed. This informationincludes a list of those individuals who are authorized to use caregiverassistance application 124, including their usernames and passwords (andother data, such as their authorization level, email address, phonenumber, etc.).

If the user's username and password match an authorized entry withinlocal rules repository 126, caregiver assistance application 124proceeds to step 154 of algorithm 226 (FIG. 5). At step 154 of algorithm140, caregiver assistance application 124 displays a main screen thatallows a user to access the functionality of caregiver assistanceapplication 124. The content of the main screen may vary widely. FIG. 8illustrates one example of such a main screen in the form of a roomlisting screen 156. Room listing screen 156 includes a plurality ofrows. Each row includes a room identifier 158 that identifies aparticular room 92 within the healthcare facility in which caregiverassistance system 106 is installed. The particular selection of whichrooms to list in room listing screen 156 corresponds, in the illustratedembodiment, to the particular person who has just logged into caregiverassistance application 124. That is, each caregiver is assigned a levelof administrative access to the data contained within caregiverassistance application 124. This assignment is carried out by one ormore of the authorized individuals 136 who initially set up caregiverassistance application 124. In at least one embodiment, caregivers areassigned an access level that only permits them to view rooms that theythemselves have been assigned. Caregiver managers may be granted ahigher access level that permits them to view all of the rooms of all ofthe caregivers which they oversee. Administrators may be granted an evenhigher access that allows them to see all of the rooms in the entirehealthcare facility. Still other types of access levels may be usedand/or created, and the rules defining the access level architecture arestored within local rules repository 126.

Caregiver assistance application 124 automatically determines whichrooms a particular caregiver has been assigned by communicating with aserver on local area network 74 that maintains room assignments forcaregivers. In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, nurse call server 96is shown to include a caregiver-room assignment table 122 that storesthe room assignments for the caregivers within the healthcare facility.As noted previously, caregiver-room assignment table 122 may be storedon a different server. During installation of caregiver assistanceapplication 124, an authorized administrator inputs the IP address ofthe server containing caregiver room assignment table 122 (and/or otherdata necessary to gain access to caregiver-room assignment table 122).Similar data is also input for all of the other servers and tablesdiscussed herein. After a user successfully logins at step 152 ofalgorithm 140, caregiver assistance application 124 sends a message tothe server having caregiver room assignment table 122. The messagerequests an up-to-date listing of the rooms that are assigned to thecaregiver who has just logged in. After receiving this information,caregiver assistance application 124 displays those rooms on the displayof the electronic device 104 (or, more precisely, causes the web browserto display those rooms on the display of the electronic device 104).Thus, in the example of FIG. 8, caregiver assistance application 124displays rooms 7090 through 7096, which correspond to the rooms assignedto the particular caregiver who is using caregiver assistanceapplication 124.

In some healthcare facilities, caregivers may be assigned to specificpatients instead of specific rooms. In such instances, caregiverassistance application 124 may be configured in at least two alternativemanners. In a first manner, caregiver assistance application 124continues to display a room listing, such as the room listing screen 156of FIG. 8. In a second manner, caregiver assistance application 124displays a patient listing screen that, instead of rows of the rooms thecaregiver has been assigned, displays rows of each of the patients thecaregiver has been assigned to. When configured in either manner,caregiver assistance application 124 determines the data to display bysending a request to the particular server(s) within the healthcarefacility that maintain data sufficient to correlate specific caregiversto specific patients. In the particular embodiment illustrated in FIG.4, there is no server that correlates patients to caregivers. However,by utilizing patient-room assignment table 114 in conjunction withanother server that stores caregiver to room assignments (e.g. table122), caregiver assistance application 124 is able to determine whichparticular patients are assigned to a particular caregivers, and whichrooms 92 those particular patients are located in within the healthcarefacility.

For example, if caregiver assistance application 124 is configured todisplay room listing screen 156 (FIG. 8) in a healthcare facility thatassigns caregivers to specific patients, rather than to specific rooms,caregiver assistance application 124 sends a first request message and asecond request message. The first request message is sent to whateverserver maintains a table correlating caregivers and the particularpatient they have been assigned to care for. The second request is sentto ADT server 94 and requests a listing of the specific rooms in whichthe caregiver's assigned patients are located. By using the dataretrieved from these two requests, caregiver assistance application 124is able to determine which particular patients the caregivers has beenassigned, along with the rooms those patients have been assigned.Caregiver assistance application 124 is thereby able to display roomlisting screen 156 in a manner that is tailored to the particularcaregiver who is using caregiver assistance application 124.

In those embodiments where caregiver assistance application 124 isconfigured to display rows of the patients assigned to a particularcaregiver, rather than the patient room listing screen 156, caregiverassistance application 124 need not send the first request messagementioned above. Instead, it can send a single request message to theparticular server that stores the table (or other data structure) thatcorrelates caregivers to particular patients. Caregiver assistanceapplication 124 then displays on the display screen of the electronicdevice used by that particular caregiver the listing of those patientswho are assigned to that particular caregiver.

Still further, in some embodiments, a particular healthcare facility mayassign rooms to particular caregivers but may desire to have roomlisting screen 156 replaced by a patient listing screen that identifiesthe particular patients assigned to a particular caregiver. Caregiverassistance application 124 may be configured to accommodate this desire.In order to do so, caregiver assistance application 124 sends a messageto nurse call server 96 requesting the room assignments for a particularcaregiver and also sends a message to ADT server 94 requesting thepatient assignments to particular rooms. By using the data from both ofthese requests, caregiver assistance application 124 is able todetermine which patients have been assigned to which caregivers, and istherefore able to display a patient listing screen instead of, or inaddition to, room listing screen 156. This is configurable by anauthorized individual 136 and is stored in rule repository 126.

It should be noted that, although most electronic devices 104 areassociated with a particular caregiver, this is not always the case,particularly for stationary electronic devices 104 b. Stationaryelectronic devices 104 b, which may include large screen smarttelevisions, may be associated with a particular unit of a healthcarefacility, a particular nurse's station, wing, floor, and/or othersection of the healthcare facility. For these devices, the logincredentials may be tailored to the particular location and/or intendedfunction of that particular electronic device 104 b. For example, astationary electronic device 104 b may be associated with an oncologyunit, an east wing, nurse's station XYZ, the second floor, or rooms Athrough G, or something else. In such instances, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 may be configured to assign a username and password toeach such electronic device 104 that is custom tailored to that specificdevice. Thus, for example, if a particular electronic device 104 ispositioned at a nurse's station within a pediatric oncology unit, thedevice 104 may be assigned a username of “pediatric oncology display”and have its own specific password. Once an authorized user has loggedinto caregiver assistance application 124 via that device, caregiverassistance application displays the rooms and/or patient datacorresponding to the pediatric oncology unit on that particular device.The room and/or patient data may include rooms and/or patients that areassigned to multiple caregivers, thereby allowing the electronic device104 to display information beyond that associated with a singlecaregiver.

Regardless of whether caregiver assistance application 124 displays roomlisting screen 156 at step 154 or a patient listing screen, caregiverassistance application 124 is also configured to display a statussummary 160 (FIG. 8). Status summaries 160 provide additionalinformation about the status of the patient in the room and/or thepatient support apparatus 20 assigned to that room. Thus, for example,the status summary 160 may indicate that a patient is a fall risk or abed sore risk, that the patient support apparatus 20 is currently empty,that the patient support apparatus 20 is in a compliant or non-compliantstate, and/or that one or more tasks (e.g. a fall risk assessment) arewaiting to be performed for that particular patient and/or room.

Caregiver assistance application 124 receives the data necessary fordisplaying status summaries 160 by communicating with one or more of theservers on local area network 74. In some embodiments, caregiverassistance application 124 receives all of the patient support apparatusdata from patient support apparatus server 86, which may be acommercially available bed status server, such as, but not limited to,the iBed server available from Stryker Corporation of Kalamazoo,Michigan. Further details of the iBed server are found in the StrykerInstallation/Configuration Manual for the iBed Server 2.0 (document5212-209-001 REV A), published in May of 2016 by Stryker Corporation ofKalamazoo, Michigan, the complete disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference. In other embodiments, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 is configured to receive the patient support apparatusstatus data directly from the patient support apparatuses 20 themselves,rather than through an intermediary server, such as the above-noted iBedserver.

Caregiver assistance application 124 receives the patient data andprotocol data from EMR server 98 and/or ADT server 94. ADT server 94 maycontain, in addition to patient room assignments, requirements dataidentifying one or more protocols that the healthcare facility requiresits caregivers to follow when caring for one or more patients. Suchrequirements data, for example, may specify what assessments are to beperformed on a patient, such as an assessment of the patient's fall riskand/or bed sore risk. Alternatively, such requirements data may bestored elsewhere, such as, but not limited to, local rules repository126. In some embodiments, the requirements data that specifies whichassessments (fall, skin, etc.) are to be performed for a given patientmay depend upon the location of the patient within the healthcarefacility. For example, some healthcare facilities may configure localrules repository 126 such that all patients within a particular wing,floor, or other section, receive both a fall risk assessment and a skinassessment, while patients within a different location are to receiveonly one or none of these assessments. Caregiver assistance application124 automatically checks these local rules when a new patient isadmitted to the healthcare facility (as determined from communicationwith ADT server 94) and, if no assessment is recorded in EMR server 98(which may be sent there either by caregiver assistance application 124itself or another device), it displays a reminder on various screensassociated with that patient that such an assessment needs to beperformed.

Thus, when a new patient enters the healthcare facility, caregiverassistance application 124 automatically determines from server 94and/or rules repository 126 (or another location) if a particularpatient is supposed to have a fall assessment, bed sore assessment, orother assessment performed. If so, caregiver assistance application 124further sends an inquiry to EMR server 98 to determine if such anassessment has been completed for that particular patient. If it hasnot, caregiver assistance application 124 displays this lack ofcompletion in the status summary 160 (FIG. 8). In the example shown inFIG. 8, the patient in room 7092 has not yet had a fall risk assessmentperformed, and this information is shown in the status summary 160corresponding to room 7092.

Turning more particularly to the examples shown in FIG. 8, caregiverassistance application 124 receives the data necessary to indicate thatthe patient in room 7093 is a fall risk from EMR server 98. Caregiverassistance application 124 requests and receives the data indicating“safe bed” for rooms 7090 and 7091 from patient support apparatus server86. The term “safe bed” displayed in the status summary 160 for rooms7090 and 7091 of FIG. 8 means that the patient support apparatuses 20 inthose rooms are currently configured in their desired state (i.e. intheir compliant states). As was noted previously, this “desired state”may be a pre-programmed part of caregiver assistance system 106, or itmay be modified and/or customized by an authorized individual 136. Ineither case, the definition of the desired state, or “safe bed,” isstored in local rules repository 126. In some embodiments, a particularpatient support apparatus 20 is considered to be in the “safe bed” stateif all of the following are true: the exit detection system 46 is armed,the brake is activated, the litter frame 28 is at its lowest height (orwithin a specified range of its lowest height), and at least three ofthe siderails 36 are in their raised position. As noted, this “safe bed”state may be modified to include, among other things, one or more of thefollowing: a requirement that the NC cable 102 is plugged into an NCpower outlet; a requirement that the nurse call cable 78 is plugged intothe nurse call outlet 82; a requirement that a monitoring function forthe patient support apparatus 20 is armed; and/or other requirements.Still further, the “safe bed” state may be modified to remove one ormore of the aforementioned criteria.

As was noted previously, caregiver assistance application 124 determinesif a patient in a particular room needs to have an assessment performedby checking EMR server 98 and/or one or more other servers on the localarea network that define what assessments are to be performed (andwhen), and that record when such assessments have been completed. Aswill be discussed in more detail below, such assessments may becompleted, in at least some embodiments, using electronic devices 104and/or patient support apparatuses 20, and sent to EMR server 98 fromeither or both of these devices. Alternatively, such assessments may beperformed by other devices who forward their results to EMR server 98.In the particular example shown in FIG. 8, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 has determined that the patient in room 7092 has not yethad a fall risk assessment performed, and therefore displays “fall riskassessment” in the status summary 160 associated with room 7092.

Similarly, caregiver assistance application 124 is configured to displayin the status summary 160 the results of any patient assessments that acaregiver should be aware of. Thus, in the example of FIG. 8, caregiverassistance application 124 displays “fall risk patient” for the statussummary 160 associated with room 7094. This indicates that a fall riskassessment has been performed for the patient in room 7094 and thatassessment has indicated that that particular patient is at a higherrisk for falling. The results of this fall risk assessment are typicallystored in EMR server 98, and caregiver assistance application 124 isconfigured to request these results from EMR server 98 and display themin status summary 160, if a fall risk (or bed sore risk, or other risk)has been detected.

Caregiver assistance application 124 is also configured to display inthe status summary 160 whether or not a patient support apparatus 20 iscurrently occupied by a patient or not. This information is obtainedfrom the weight sensors, such as load cells, that are included withinthe scale/exit detection system 46 of each patient support apparatus 20.Each patient support apparatus 20 periodically transmits its weightreadings to patient support apparatus server 86. Those weight readingsare forwarded to caregiver assistance server 90. If the weight readingsare less than a threshold (e.g. 50 pounds), caregiver assistanceapplication 124 concludes that the patient support apparatus 20 isunoccupied and may display this information in status summary 160 (or itmay display other information that is configured to have a higherpriority, such as, but not limited to, any assessments that need to beperformed for that particular patient). Such information may bedisplayed in status summary 160 with the words “weight not detected,” or“patient out of bed,” or some other text that indicates that the patientsupport apparatus 20 is not detecting the patient.

In the example shown in FIG. 8, caregiver assistance application 124 isdisplaying the word “empty” for rooms 7095 and 7096. This indicates thatthose rooms currently do not have any patients assigned to them.Caregiver assistance application 124 determines this information bysending a request to ADT server 94 server asking it for patientinformation for those rooms 92 that are assigned to the particularcaregivers who are using caregiver assistance system 106. In thisexample, ADT server 94 instructed caregiver assistance application 124that rooms 7095 and 7096 were not assigned to any patients. Accordingly,caregiver assistance application 124 displays “empty” in the statussummary 160 for these rooms.

It will be understood that the examples of information displayed in thestatus summaries 160 shown in FIG. 8 are merely several examples of thetypes of information that may be displayed on room listing screen 156.Caregiver assistance application 124 may be modified to show less, more,and/or different information in status summaries 160 and/or to eliminatethem entirely. Still further, caregiver assistance application 124 maybe configured to display the status summaries 160 in different colors,depending upon the informational content of the status summary 160.Thus, for example, tasks that need to be completed may be highlighted ina different color (e.g. orange); information indicating a task has notbeen complete within a designated time period and/or a patient supportapparatus 20 that is out of compliance with a desired state may behighlighted in yet another color (e.g. red); and information indicatingthat no tasks or no out-of-compliance states exist may be indicated inyet another color (e.g. green). Indications of alerts may be displayedin status summary through flashing text, or still other manners.

Returning to general algorithm 226 of caregiver assistance system 106(FIG. 5), general algorithm 226 proceeds from step 154 to step 155. Atstep 155 of general algorithm 226, caregiver assistance application 124determines whether or not a caregiver has selected a particular roomfrom amongst the rooms listed in room listing screen 156. If thecaregiver has not selected a particular room, algorithm 226 returns tostep 154 and continues to display the room listing screen 156. If thecaregiver has selected a particular room, application 124 proceeds tostep 157 where it displays on the screen of electronic device 104 a roomoverview screen 162, such as the room overview screen 162 of FIG. 9.Thus, if a user navigates to the room listing screen 156 at any pointwhile using caregiver assistance application 124, he or she can press on(or otherwise select) a particular room listed on room listing screen156. Caregiver assistance application 124 responds to this selection bydisplaying a room overview screen 162 that corresponds to the particularroom 92 selected by the user. The particular room overview screen 162shown in FIG. 9 is therefore displayed by caregiver assistanceapplication 124 when a user specifically selects room 7093 from roomlisting screen 156. Caregiver assistance application 124 may alsoinclude other tools for allowing a user to navigate to room overviewscreen 162, such as, but not limited to, a search function in which roomnumbers may be entered/searched.

Room overview screen 162 (FIG. 9) displays information about aparticular room 92 within the healthcare facility and the patientassociated with that room 92. It will be understood that room overviewscreen 162 may be changed to a bay overview screen, or other type ofoverview screen, if the particular room that the caregiver has selectedis a semi-private room containing more than one patient supportapparatus 20 or patient. In such embodiments, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 displays a bay overview screen (not shown) similar toroom overview screen 162 that is specific to the particular bay that thecaregiver has selected the within semi-private room.

Room overview screen 162 (or a similar bay overview screen) includes abed icon 164, an exit detection system status indicator 166, a bed watchstatus indicator 168, a bed status bar 170, a summary area 172, and atask menu 174 (FIG. 9). Bed icon 164 includes a plurality of siderailicons 176 positioned along the sides of bed icon 164. Within eachsiderail icon 176 is an indicator (not labeled) that includes the word“up” or “down.” Caregiver assistance application 124 selectivelydisplays the “up” or “down” down indication within the siderail icons176 based upon the current status of the siderails 36 of the patientsupport apparatus 20 within room 7093. Caregiver assistance application124 receives the up/down status of each siderail 36 from patient supportapparatus server 86 and displays “up” or “down” to match the currentsiderail status of patient support apparatus 20. Caregiver assistanceapplication 124 is also configured, in at least some embodiments, todisplay the siderail icons 176 in a different color if they are in thedown state, such as, but not limited to, amber. This distinguishes thesiderail icons 176 from those corresponding to siderails 36 that are inan up position, which may be displayed in a green color, or some othercolor.

Exit detection system status indicator 166 (FIG. 9) indicates thecurrent status of the scale/exit detection system 46 of thecorresponding patient support apparatus 20 (e.g. the patient supportapparatus 20 positioned in room 7093). That is, status indicator 166indicates if the exit detection system 46 is currently armed or not. Italso indicates what zone of the exit detection system the user hasselected, if the exit detection system is armed and includes multiplezones. Many exit detection systems are configured to allow a user toselect different zones of permitted movement. The different zones allowa patient to move different amounts before the exit detection systemissues an alert. In the example of FIG. 9, the patient support apparatus20 includes an exit detection system 46 having three zones, the secondof which is highlighted. The exit detection system 46 is indicated inFIG. 9 as being disarmed (off). Caregiver assistance application 124displays an “armed” or “on” indicator when the exit detection system 46is armed, and also highlights the selected zone (1, 2, or 3). Furtherinformation about the zones and/or operation of an exit detection systemthat may be incorporated into patient support apparatus 20 and utilizedin caregiver assistance system 106 are found in commonly assigned U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/918,003 filed Oct. 20, 2015, by inventorsMarko Kostic et al. and entitled EXIT DETECTION SYSTEM WITHCOMPENSATION, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference.

Bed watch status indicator 168 (FIG. 9) indicates whether the bed watchfeature of the patient support apparatus 20 is turned on or off. The bedwatch feature is a monitoring feature that is included in someembodiments of patient support apparatuses 20, but may be omitted inother embodiments. In general, the bed watch feature, when activated,causes controller 48 to monitor the status of a plurality of componentsof the patient support apparatus 20 to issue an alert when any of thosecomponents are changed from a desired state to an undesired state. Inseveral embodiments, the particular features that are monitored by thebed watch feature are defined by the patient fall risk reductionprotocol 93 (FIG. 2). The patient fall risk reduction protocol 93 alsodefines what the desired states are for each of the particularcomponents that are being monitored by the bed watch feature.

For example, if the bed watch function is activated and includes themonitoring of the siderails 36 of the patient support apparatus 20,controller 48 of patient support apparatus 20 will issue an alert if oneor more of the siderails are lowered, or otherwise moved to an undesiredstate. Generally speaking, when the bed watch feature is incorporatedinto a particular patient support apparatus 20, the patient supportapparatus 20 can be configured to issue an alert if any one or more ofthe following changes on the patient support apparatus 20: the exitdetection system 46 is disarmed, a siderail 36 is lowered, the patientexits the patient support apparatus 20, the brake is deactivated, theheight of the bed is raised beyond a specified level, the NC power cord102 is unplugged, and/or the nurse call cable 78 is unplugged. Theparticular features of patient support apparatus 20 that, when changed,trigger an alert can be selected by an authorized user, such asauthorized individual 136. This selection may take place via one of thecontrol panels 42 of the patient support apparatus 20, one of electronicdevices 104, and/or via a computer in communication with caregiverassistance server 90. The alert issued by patient support apparatus 20in response to the bed watch function detecting an undesired state maybe a local alert (at patient support apparatus 20), a remote alert (e.g.sent to patient support apparatus server 86 and/or to caregiverassistance application 124), or a combination of both a local and aremote alert. The user may select from these different types of alertsvia patient support apparatus 20, electronic devices 104, and/or acomputer in communication with server 90.

Bed status bar 170 provides additional information about the currentstatus of patient support apparatus 20 (FIG. 9). This includes anindication of whether or not the brake on the patient support apparatus20 is activated or not; information indicating whether litter frame 28is at its lowest height or not; information indicating whether the nursecall cable 78 is plugged into nurse call outlet 82 or not; andinformation indicating whether the NC power cable 102 is plugged into anNC outlet or not. All of the information shown in status bar 170 (aswell as all of the patient support apparatus 20 data displayed bycaregiver assistance application 124) is sent by the patient supportapparatuses 20 (via transceiver 60) to patient support apparatus server86, which then forwards it to caregiver assistance server 90 andcaregiver assistance application 124. Although, in some modifiedembodiments, caregiver assistance application 124 and caregiverassistance server 90 are configured to receive this information directlyfrom patient support apparatuses 20, thereby avoiding the need for aseparate patient support apparatus server 86.

The data displayed in bed status bar 170 (FIG. 9) is updated in realtime, or near real time. In most embodiments of patient supportapparatuses 20, the patient support apparatuses 20 are configured toautomatically (and nearly immediately) communicate their status topatient support apparatus server 86 whenever a change occurs in theirstatus. Thus, for example, if the nurse call cable 78 gets unpluggedfrom the nurse call outlet 82, the patient support apparatus 20 sends amessage automatically and almost immediately thereafter to patientsupport apparatus server 86. The patient support apparatus server 86automatically, and immediately or nearly immediately, forwards thisstatus update to caregiver assistance application 124. Caregiverassistance application 124, in turn, updates the information displayedin bed status bar 170 to indicate that the nurse call cable has beenunplugged. A caregiver, who may be remote from a particular room 92and/or a particular patient support apparatus 20, thereby gets a realtime, or near real time, update of the status of patient supportapparatus 20 when utilizing caregiver assistance application 124.

Summary area 172 of room overview screen 162 (FIG. 9) lists one or moreitems of information about the patient, the patient's patient supportapparatus 20, the room assigned to that particular patient, and/or anydata generated from the reminder algorithm 145. In the example shown inFIG. 9, the summary area 172 includes a reminder to set, or arm, exitdetection system 46, and more specifically to select zone 2 when armingit. This data comes from reminder algorithm 145, which allows acaregiver to select one or more tasks associated with a patient and/orpatient support apparatus 20, schedule those tasks, have remindersissued via caregiver assistance application 124, and display data aboutthose reminders in summary area 172.

Summary area 172 also includes an entry re-iterating the fact that thenurse call cable 78 has been disconnected. Still further, summary area172 includes an entry reminding the caregiver of any upcoming tasks thatare scheduled for this particular patient, room, and/or patient supportapparatus 20. In the specific example of FIG. 7, the summary area 172 ofroom overview screen 162 includes a reminder to turn the patient in room7093 in thirty-three minutes. This task data is input into caregiverassistance application 124 by a caregiver and/or authorized individual136 using the reminder algorithm 145. Additional or alternativereminders may be included using the reminder algorithm 145, such asreminders to perform a fall risk assessment, to perform a bed sore riskassessment, to perform a rounding duty, to carry out one or moretherapies, etc. Such reminders include, in some embodiments, anindication of the amount of time until the task is supposed to becompleted (e.g. a time until the next patient turn or next roundingtask) and/or an amount of time that has elapsed since the time the taskwas last completed (e.g. the amount of time since the patient was lastturned or the amount of time since the rounding duties were lastperformed).

Task menu 174 of room overview screen 162 (FIG. 9) identifies aplurality of different tasks that may be undertaken by a caregiverutilizing caregiver assistance application 124. In the example shown inFIG. 9 and elsewhere (e.g. FIGS. 10-17), task menu 174 includes fourseparate task icons: a falls task icon 178, a rounding task icon 180, askin task icon 182, and a reminders task icon 184. If a caregiverselects one of these task icons 174-182 at step 159, caregiverassistance application 124 begins execution of a corresponding algorithm140, 141, 143, and 145 at step 161 (FIG. 5). More specifically, if acaregiver selects fall task icon 178 at step 159, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 begins execution of fall risk reduction algorithm 143 atstep 161. If a caregiver selects rounding task icon 180 at step 159,caregiver assistance application 124 begins execution of roundingalgorithm 140 (FIG. 6) at step 161. If a caregiver selects skin taskicon 182 at step 159, caregiver assistance application 124 beginsexecution of skin care algorithm 141 at step 161. Finally, if acaregiver selects reminder icon 184 at step 157, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 begins executing reminder algorithm 145 at step 161.

The selection of these various icons and their associated algorithmscause caregiver assistance application 124 to bring up different screenscorresponding to the selected task. The different screens enable a userto perform one or more tasks with respect to that particular patient.For example, if the user selects the falls task icon 178, caregiverassistance application 124 begins execution of fall risk reductionalgorithm 143 and causes the display of electronic device 104 to displayone or more screens allowing a caregiver to perform one or more tasksassociated with reducing the likelihood of a patient falling, such as,but not limited to, the screens shown in FIGS. 19-27. These tasksinclude, but are not limited to, performing a fall risk assessment andconfiguring the patient support apparatus 20 according to a fall riskreduction protocol (e.g. in a manner that helps to reduce or minimize apatient's fall risk). The particular screen that is displayed bycaregiver assistance application 124 in response to a user selecting thefalls task icon 178 (or any of the other task icons of task menu 174)may be an initial screen that is part of a larger set of screens thatare displayable by caregiver assistance application 124 in order toassist the caregiver with the selected task. In some embodiments, thisinitial screen is of the type shown in FIG. 19, although other screensmay be initially shown.

If a caregiver selects skin task 182 (FIG. 9) at step 159 (FIG. 5),caregiver assistance application 124 executes skin care algorithm 141,which causes it to display an initial skin care screen (not shown) thatassists the caregiver in performing a bed sore risk assessment,documenting one or more existing skin states or conditions, and/orsetting one or more reminders or configurations on the patient supportapparatus 20 to assist in preventing the development and/or worsening ofa patient's bed sores. As with fall task icon 180, the selection of skintask icon 182 causes caregiver assistance application 124 to display aninitial screen associated with caring for a patient's skin that is partof a larger set of screens adapted to assist the caregiver in caring forthe patient's skin. The additional screens within that larger set areaccessible through the initial screen, or through one or more of theother screens that are accessible from the initial screen.

If a caregiver selects reminder task icon 184 step 159 (FIG. 5),caregiver assistance application 124 executes reminder algorithm 145 anddisplays an initial reminder screen (not shown) that allows thecaregiver to set, edit, and/or cancel reminders associated with caringfor that patient. Such reminders include, but are not limited to,reminders to turn the patient, reminders to perform one or moretherapies on the patient (e.g. a lateral rotation therapy using mattress38), reminders to perform caregiver rounds, and other reminders.Whatever the specific reminder, caregiver assistance application 124 isconfigured to display the reminder in summary area 172 of room overviewscreen 162, in the status summary 160 of room listing screen 156, and/oron other screens of caregiver assistance application 124. The displaymay include not only an indication of the reminder, but also a timeremaining until the reminder deadline is met (or, if the reminderdeadline has passed, an amount of time that has passed since thereminder deadline expired). Still further, in some embodiments ofcaregiver assistance system 106, caregiver assistance application 124 isconfigured to send a notification to the caregiver when a reminderdeadline is reached (or at one or more configurable times ahead of thereminder deadline). The notifications include, in some embodiments, anemail, a text, a phone call, or some other type of notification, as willbe discussed more below.

During the performance of any of the tasks identified in task menu 174,caregiver assistance application 124 is configured to continue todisplay task menu 174 on the screens that are specifically associatedwith those tasks. If the user selects a task icon corresponding to atask different from the one currently being executed, caregiverassistance application 124 switches to performing the algorithmassociated with that particular task. In the specific case of therounding algorithm 140, if the caregiver selects rounding task icon 180from one of the screens associated with tasks icons 178, 182, or 184,caregiver assistance application switches to step 192 of roundingalgorithm 140 (FIG. 6), as will be discussed in more detail below.

If the caregiver does not select any of the tasks from task menu 174,general algorithm 226 (FIG. 5) of caregiver assistance application 124proceeds to step 163 where it determines if a caregiver has input acommand to control one or more aspects of the patient support apparatus20. If the caregiver has input such a command, algorithm 226 proceeds tostep 165 where it sends the command to the patient support apparatus 20.The routing of this command is through caregiver assistance server 90,in at least one embodiment. That is, the command to control one or moreaspects of the patient support apparatus 20 is sent from the electronicdevice 104 to caregiver assistance application 124 (via one or wirelessaccess points 76). After being received, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 forwards the command either directly to thecorresponding patient support apparatus 20 using wireless access points76, or it forwards the command to patient support apparatus server 86,which then forwards the command to the patient support apparatus 20using one or more wireless access points 76. When the command isreceived at the patient support apparatus 20, controller 48 checks tosee if the command is an authorized command and, if so, implements thecommand.

After both steps 163 and 165 of general algorithm 226 (FIG. 5),caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds to step 167 where itchecks to see if the caregiver has input a command to change thecurrently displayed room overview screen 162 back to the room listingscreen 156 of FIG. 8. If the caregiver has, algorithm 226 returns backto step 154 and proceeds in the manner previously described. If thecaregiver has not, algorithm returns back to step 157 and proceeds inthe manner previously described.

It should be noted that the display of different screens withincaregiver assistance application 124 is not only controlled by the areathat a user presses/selects on a particular screen, but also by thecaregiver's use of the conventional “back” and “forward” functions ofthe web browser that the caregiver is using to access caregiverassistance application 124. Thus, for example, if a user is viewing roomoverview screen 162 of FIG. 9 and wishes to return to viewing roomlisting screen 156 of FIG. 8, he or she can simply press, or otherwiseactivate, the “back” function of the web browser the caregiver is using.

If a caregiver selects rounding task icon 180 (FIG. 9) at step 159 ofgeneral algorithm 226 (FIG. 5), caregiver assistance application 124begins executing rounding algorithm 140 of FIG. 6. Rounding algorithm140 begins at a step 192 where caregiver assistance application 124receives and/or verifies a room selection or bed selection. In responseto such a room selection or bed selection, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 proceeds to displaying a first rounding screen 190, suchas the first rounding screen 190 shown in FIG. 10. The caregiver'sselection of a specific room or patient support apparatus is used bycaregiver assistance application 124 in order for caregiver assistanceapplication 124 to know what patient and/or room rounding information todisplay on screen 190 (and its subsequent rounding screens). If acaregiver navigates to screen 190 from a screen, such as screen 162 ofFIG. 9, caregiver assistance application displays information on screen190 that corresponds to the same bed and/or room as was selected inscreen 162. Thus, because screen 162 was displaying information for room7093 in FIG. 9, if a user navigates to screen 190 of FIG. 10 by pressingon the rounding task icon 180 of FIG. 9, caregiver assistanceapplication will automatically display the rounding information onscreen 190 that also corresponds to room 7093.

However, there may be situations where the first rounding screen 190 iscalled up by the caregiver without having previously selected aparticular room and/or patient, or there may be situations where thecaregiver wants to utilize first rounding screen 190 for a differentroom or patient than what was selected on a previously displayed screen.In those situations, first rounding screen 190 may be modified and/orsupplemented by a screen, or input field, in which the caregiver canselect a particular room and/or patient for carrying out the roundingtasks associated with first rounding screen 190. In some embodiments,the particular patient support apparatus 20 may be selected at step 192by having the user manually enter the room number of the patient whoserounding information he or she is intending to collect. In otherembodiments, patient support apparatus 20 may have a short rangewireless transmitter (e.g. one or more near field transmitters and/or aBluetooth transmitter) that communicates automatically with the mobileelectronic device 104 a and tells the device 104 a which patient supportapparatus 20 it is. In response, caregiver assistance application 124automatically associates the first rounding screen 190 with the patientsupport apparatus 20 identified in the wireless communication itreceived from the patient support apparatus 20. In still otherembodiments, caregiver assistance application 124 may be configured toautomatically associate first rounding screen 190 with a particular roomor patient based on the current location of the mobile electronic device104 a at the time the first rounding screen 190 was first accessed. Suchcurrent location information may be received from RTLS server 100.

Regardless of the specific manner in which the room for first roundingscreen 190 is selected, caregiver assistance application 124 displaysthe selected room in a room identifier location 198 (FIG. 10). Caregiverassistance application 124 may also display the same content of statussummary 160 (of room listing screen 156) in a status location 200adjacent the room identifier location 198. First rounding screen 190also includes a top portion 202 and a bottom portion 204. Top portion202 includes the same information displayed in the top half of roomoverview screen 162 (FIG. 9). Specifically, it includes the bed icon164, exit detection system status indicator 166, bed watch statusindicator 168, and bed status bar 170. Bottom portion 204, however, doesnot include summary area 172 of room overview screen 162, but insteadincludes a first rounding question 206. The first rounding questionidentifies a question intended to be asked by the caregiver of thepatient while the caregiver is performing his or her rounding duties.Caregiver assistance application 124 displays this first question 206 atstep 208 of algorithm 140 (FIG. 6).

The specific first rounding question 206 displayed at step 208 ofalgorithm 140 (illustrated in FIG. 10) is a question regarding thepatient's pain level. Specifically, it is a question of the patient'scurrent pain level on a scale of zero through ten with zero being thelowest pain level and ten being the highest. It will be understood that,although first question 206 is described herein as being the “first”question shown after rounding task icon 180 is selected, the particularorder of questions displayed by caregiver assistance application 124 maybe varied, and the term “first” in the phrase “first rounding question”is merely used to distinguish the question from other rounding question,not to indicate any particular significance to its sequential order.

First rounding question screen 190 (FIG. 10) includes a plus sign icon210, a minus sign icon 212, a next icon 214, and a current pain levelindicator 216. The plus sign icon 210 and minus sign icon 212 arepressed by the caregiver to increase or decrease the patient's painlevel, as indicated by the current pain level indicator 216, until thecorresponding pain level shown by indicator 216 matches the pain levelexpressed by the patient. For example, if the user indicates their painlevel is a six, the caregiver presses the plus sign icon 212 six timesuntil the current pain level indicator reads a six. The caregiver thenpresses next icon 214 and caregiver assistance application 124 saves thepain level data and proceeds to display a second rounding questionscreen, such as second rounding question screen 220 shown in FIG. 11.

In other embodiments, first rounding question screen 190 (FIG. 10) ismodified to allow the user to input the patient's current pain level inone or more alternative and/or additional manners. For example, inanother embodiment, plus and minus signs 210 and 212 are replaced by anumeric keypad icon and the user simply presses on the numbers of thekeypad to directly input the patient's pain level. In yet anotherembodiment, a slider bar icon is displayed on screen 190 and the usertouches the slider bar while moving the sliding portion of the bar to aposition corresponding to the number of the patient's pain level. Stillother manners of allowing the user to input the patient's pain level arepossible.

Second rounding question screen 220 includes all of the same elements offirst rounding question screen 190 with the exception of the specificrounding question displayed in bottom portion 204. That is, secondrounding question screen 220 displays the room identifier in the roomidentifier location 298, the status of the room in the room statuslocation 200, and all of the same icons in top portion 202 that arefound in the top portion 202 of first rounding screen 190. Bottomportion 204, however, differs from bottom portion 204 of screen 190 inthat it is directed to a different rounding question. Specifically,bottom portion 204 of second rounding question screen 220 includes arounding question 222 inquiring whether the patient is currently in acomfortable position or not. If the patient is not, the caregiverassists the patient to a more comfortable position and documents thismovement or turning of the patient by pressing a “patient turn” icon 224displayed on screen 220. In response to pressing the turn icon 224,caregiver assistance application 124 records the fact that the patienthas been turned, along with the identity of the particular caregiverassociated with the mobile electronic device 104 a from which the turnindication was received. Caregiver assistance application 124 furthertime stamps this recording and, as will be discussed further below,includes it with other rounding information that is transmitted to theEMR server 98.

If the patient does not need to be turned or otherwise repositioned, thecaregiver presses the next icon 214 on screen 220 (FIG. 11). Thepressing of the next icon 214 on screen 220 causes caregiver assistanceapplication 124 to display a third rounding question screen 230, anexample of which is shown in FIG. 12. Third rounding question screen 230includes a top portion 202 and a bottom portion 204. Top portion 202include all of the same information as the top portions 202 of first andsecond rounding question screens 190 and 220. Bottom portion 204 differsfrom these screens in that it includes a third rounding question 232,which, in this case, is an inquiry into whether the patient needs to usethe restroom or not. If the patient needs to use the restroom, thecaregiver assists, or otherwise allows, the patient to use the restroom.In some embodiments, third rounding question screen 230 may include aninput that, when pressed by the caregiver, sends a message to caregiverassistance application 124 indicating that the patient has used therestroom, and caregiver assistance application 124 saves thisinformation for entry into that particular patient's electronic medicalrecord. If the patient does not need to use the restroom, or hasfinished using the restroom, the caregiver presses the next icon 214.

In response to pressing the next icon 214 on third rounding questionscreen 230, caregiver assistance application 124 displays a fourthrounding question screen 240, one example of which is shown in FIG. 13.Fourth rounding question screen 240 includes a top portion 202 and abottom portion 204. Top portion 202 include all of the same informationas the top portions 202 of first, second, and third rounding questionscreens 190, 220, and 230. Bottom portion 204 differs from these screensin that it includes a fourth rounding question 242, which, in this case,is an inquiry into whether the patient needs any possession or not. Ifthe patient needs a possession, the caregiver retrieves it for thepatient, or otherwise moves it into a position within the room 92 thatis accessible to the patient without requiring the patient to leavepatient support apparatus 20. After ensuring that the patient has accessto any of his or her possessions, the caregiver again presses the nexticon 214.

It can be seen from FIG. 6 that the input of rounding informationutilizing the rounding screens 190, 220, 230, and 240 corresponds tosteps 246, 248, and 250 of algorithm 140. That is, at step 208 (FIG. 4),caregiver assistance application 124 displays a first rounding question.This step is accomplished by displaying first rounding question screen190 and its associated first rounding question 206. After displayingthis information, caregiver assistance application 124 waits for aresponse from the caregiver at step 248. After waiting for the response,algorithm 140 receives data from the caregiver at step 248. This datainput corresponds to, for example, the caregiver entering the patient'spain level via screen 190, or repositioning the patient and documentingthe repositioning step using patient turn icon 224 of screen 220. Forsome screens, such as screens 230 and 240, the data entry includes thepressing of the next icon 214, which indicates that the correspondingquestion was asked by the caregiver.

After receiving the caregiver assistance data at step 248 (FIG. 6),caregiver assistance application 124 moves onto step 250 where itdetermines whether or not there are more caregiver assistance questionsto ask. Thus, after displaying first, second, and third roundingquestion screens 190, 220, and 230, respectively, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 returns back to step 208 and displays the anotherrounding question screen. However, after displaying the fourth roundingquestion screen 240 (FIG. 13), caregiver assistance application 124moves from step 250 to step 252 where it waits for verification dataverifying the completion of the rounding task to be input by thecaregiver, as will be discussed in greater detail below.

Before proceeding to describe step 252, it is worth noting that theparticular number and content of the caregiver assistance questionsdisplayed by caregiver assistance application 124 on electronic devices104 may be varied from the four shown in FIGS. 10-13. Caregiverassistance application 124 includes an administrative portal that can beaccessed by an authorized individual 136 to change the number ofquestions asked, the content of the questions, the order of thequestions, and the content of the data that is to be input into theapplication 124 in response to receiving the patient's answers.

At step 252 (FIG. 6) of rounding algorithm 140, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 displays a rounding completion screen 260 (FIG. 14). Therounding completion screen 260 includes a rounding documentation window262 that indicates the time (and date) at which the caregiver completedhis or her rounding task associated with the particular room shown inroom identifier location 198 (or more particularly, the patient in thatroom), as well as a verification that the information entered by thecaregiver (e.g. pain level) has been sent to caregiver assistance server90 and recorded by caregiver assistance application 124. In someembodiments, as will be discussed more below, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 proceeds to automatically forward this roundinginformation to EMR server 98 for storage in the patient's electronicmedical record. In the embodiments which follow algorithm 140, as shownin FIG. 6, caregiver assistance application 124 does not send thisrounding data to EMR server 98 until it receives verification dataverifying that the caregiver was actually present at the patient'sbedside while he or she accessed and used rounding screens 190, 220,230, and 240.

More specifically, in the embodiment of algorithm 140 shown in FIG. 6,caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds from step 250 (if thereare no more rounding questions) to step 252 where it seeks to captureverification data. As noted, the verification data refers to data thatis used to verify that the caregiver actually entered the room andperformed his or her rounding duties in the patient's room. Theparticular verification data that is captured at step 252 may varywidely from embodiment to embodiment. FIGS. 15, 16, and 17 illustratethree different verification screens that may be utilized by caregiverassistance application 124 for gathering this verification data. Each ofthe three screens is intended to gather different verification data. Inpractice, caregiver assistance application 124 will typically utilizeonly a single one of the screens shown in FIGS. 15-17. The inclusion ofmultiple screens in FIGS. 15-17 is intended to show a variety ofdifferent types of verification data that may be gathered by caregiverassistance application 124. It will further be understood, of course,that still other types of verification data may be gathered by caregiverassistance application 124 besides the three examples shown in FIGS.15-17.

Verification screen 270 (FIG. 15) includes a bottom portion 204 havingan image window 272 and a capture icon 274. Image window 272 displays animage currently being sensed by the camera built into mobile electronicdevice 104 a. Capture icon 274 is touched by the caregiver when thecaregiver is ready to take a picture. The image window 272 in FIG. 15specifically shows a Quick Response (QR) code because, in the embodimentillustrated therein, each patient support apparatus 20 is configured todisplay a QR code on its display 70 in response to the caregiverpressing a specific control, or series of controls. Controller 48 of thepatient support apparatus 20 generates the QR code in a manner thatembeds at least two pieces of information in the QR code: a uniqueidentifier corresponding to that particular patient support apparatus 20(e.g. identifier 186) and a current time (and day).

Caregiver assistance application 124 is adapted to analyze the QR codeto determine the specific patient support apparatus 20 identified in thecode and the time at which the photograph was captured by the mobileelectronic device 104 a. Caregiver assistance application 124 comparesthe specific patient support apparatus 20 identified in the QR code withthe identity of the patient support apparatus 20 positioned in the roomidentified in the room identifier location 198 to ensure that theymatch. If they do not match, then the image that the caregiver capturedusing capture icon 274 is not an image of the patient support apparatus20 associated with the patient to whom the caregiver just asked therounding questions. In this case, caregiver assistance application 124displays an error message and does not proceed to step 254 of algorithm140 (FIG. 6). If the patient support apparatus 20 identifiers match,then caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds to step 254.

Caregiver assistance application 124 receives patient support apparatusidentifiers 186 (FIG. 4) that uniquely identify each patient supportapparatus 20 from patient support apparatus server 86. When each patientsupport apparatus 20 sends these identifiers 186 to patient supportapparatus server 86, the patient support apparatus 20 also sends alocator identifier 138 (FIG. 4) that uniquely identifies the locationbeacon 84 within that room. This information is shared with caregiverassistance application 124. Caregiver assistance application 124therefore receives not only the unique IDs corresponding to each patientsupport apparatus 20, but also the location of those patient supportapparatuses 20. Alternatively, it receives the unique IDs of the patientsupport apparatuses 20 and bed location table 88. In either situation,caregiver assistance application 124 receives sufficient information toknow the specific patient support apparatus ID of each patient supportapparatus 20 and the specific room in which each patient supportapparatus is located in. This is the information caregiver assistanceapplication 124 uses to compare against the patient support apparatusidentifier contained within the QR code.

For example, if a caregiver takes a picture of a QR code usingverification screen 270 and capture icon 274, and the picture is takenin room 7093 (FIG. 15), caregiver assistance application 124 comparesthe patient support apparatus 20 ID contained within the QR code to thelocation record it maintains for that particular patient supportapparatus 20. If that record also indicates that that particular patientsupport apparatus 20 is located in room 7093, then caregiver assistanceapplication 124 accepts the QR code as verification that the caregiverwas actually present in that room when he or she performed his or herrounding tasks. If the record does not match, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 displays an error message and does not accept thepicture of the QR codes as verification of the caregiver's physicalpresence during the rounding task.

Patient support apparatuses 20 suitable for use with the verificationmethod utilized by verification screen 270 of FIG. 15 include a clockthat keeps track of the current time, and a controller 48 configured toembed both the current time and the unique ID of the patient supportapparatus 20 into the QR code. Some examples of patient supportapparatuses 20 that include internal clocks and that may be utilizedwith algorithm 140 and the verification process of FIG. 13 are disclosedin commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/642,621 filedJul. 6, 2017, by inventors Anuj Sidhu et al. and entitled PATIENTSUPPORT APPARATUSES WITH CLOCKS, the complete disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference. Other types of patient supportapparatuses 20 can, of course, alternatively be used.

The patient support apparatuses 20 utilized with the verificationprocess of FIG. 15 are configured to display the QR code somewhere ontheir display screen 70. The display of the QR code may be constant withrepetitive updates to include the current time (e.g. every minute orso), or the display may be intermittent in response to the caregiverpressing, or otherwise activating, one or more controls on the patientsupport apparatus 20. With respect to the latter option, one of controls72 may be specifically dedicated to causing patient support apparatus 20to display the QR code, or the code may be displayed in response to thecaregiver navigating to a specific screen on which the QR code isdisplayed. Still other manners of getting the patient support apparatus20 to display the QR code may be utilized.

It will also be noted that there is no requirement that the patientsupport apparatus 20 specifically utilizes a QR code. That is, othercodes may be utilized, such as, but not limited to, a bar code. Stillfurther, in some embodiments, patient support apparatus 20 is configuredto not encode the information at all. In such embodiments, patientsupport apparatus 20 displays, or can be manipulated by the caregiver todisplay (e.g. using controls 72), a screen on which both the currenttime and the unique identifier of the patient support apparatus 20 areshown. The caregiver captures an image of that display using the camerafunction of the mobile electronic device (e.g. smart phone, tablet,etc.) and forwards the image to caregiver assistance application 124.Caregiver assistance application 124 processes the image to extract theID of the patient support apparatus and the time from the capturedimage. The extracted patient support apparatus ID is then matchedagainst the record data for that particular room, as discussed above. Ifthe captured patient support apparatus ID data matches the datacontained in the records (data repository 128) of caregiver assistanceapplication 124, caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds to step254, which will now be described.

At step 254 of rounding algorithm 140 (FIG. 6), caregiver assistanceapplication 124 determines whether or not patient support apparatus 20is in a compliant or non-compliant state. The definition of a compliantstate may be determined during the installation of caregiver assistanceapplication 124 (or modified thereafter) in accordance with theparticular requirements of the healthcare facility into caregiverassistance application 124 is being installed, or it may be pre-definedby the vendor of caregiver assistance application 124. Alternatively, oradditionally, the compliant state may be defined based upon whether ornot a fall risk reduction protocol is currently being implemented forthe patient assigned to that particular patient support apparatus 20, aswill be discussed in greater detail below with respect to FIGS. 21-30.In any of the embodiments, the definition of the compliant state mayalso or alternatively be modified and/or defined by an authorizedindividual 136 after installation of system 106. In many embodiments,the compliant state includes the same criteria that are monitored by thebed watch feature discussed above. That is, in many instances,healthcare facilities will define a compliant state of a patient supportapparatus as one in which all of the following are true: the brake isactivated, the litter frame 28 is at its lowest height, the exitdetection system 46 is armed, a monitoring feature is armed, at leastthree of the siderails 36 are up (and/or specific ones of the siderailsare up), the NC power cable 102 is plugged into a wall outlet, and thenurse call cable 78 is plugged into a nurse call outlet 82. Otherdefinitions of a compliant state may, of course, be utilized.

Caregiver assistance application 124 checks to see if the patientsupport apparatus 20 is in the compliant state or not at step 254.Caregiver assistance application 124 performs this step by askingpatient support apparatus server 86 for the current status data of thepatient support apparatus 20 when the user reaches step 254. The currentstatus data of each patient support apparatus 20 is maintained bypatient support apparatus server 86 in table 88 (FIG. 4). As was noted,patient support apparatuses 20 send their status data to patient supportapparatus server 86 whenever they sense a change in their state (or upona specific request from patient support apparatus server 86). Aftercaregiver assistance application 124 receives the current status data ofthe patient support apparatus 20 from patient support apparatus server86, it checks to see if the current status data matches the compliantstate criteria discussed above. If caregiver assistance application 124determines that the patient support apparatus 20 is currently in acompliant state, it moves to step 256 of rounding algorithm 140 (FIG.6). If caregiver assistance application 124 determines that the patientsupport apparatus 20 is not currently in a compliant state, it moves tofollowing a first control path 280 (in one embodiment) or to following asecond control path 282 (in another embodiment).

At step 256 (FIG. 6), caregiver assistance application 124 sends variousdata to the EMR server 98 to be documented in the electronic medicalrecord of the patient for whom the caregiver just completed his or herrounding tasks. This transmission occurs without the caregiver having toperform any additional step beyond the ones previously described. Theparticular data that is sent to EMR server 98 includes the following:(a) the rounding data entered by the caregiver into the mobileelectronic device 104 a during the rounding task (e.g. pain level,whether the patient used the restroom, etc.); (b) the verification datacaptured during step 252 (or data indicating that the rounding tasks wasverified); (c) whether or not the patient support apparatus 20 is in acompliant state or not (or alternatively, the current status of patientsupport apparatus 20 with respect to its brake, siderails, litter frameheight, exit detection system, nurse call cable, and/or power cable);(d) a time and date stamp; and (e) data sufficient to identify thecaregiver who is currently logged into the particular mobile electronicdevice 104 a from which caregiver assistance application 124 receivesthe rounding data.

The time and date stamp may include both the time and date at which thedata is received by caregiver assistance application 124 from thecorresponding mobile electronic device 104, and the time and data thatis encoded in the verification data presented on the display 70 of thepatient support apparatus 20 and captured by the caregiver in imagewindow 272. Alternatively, or additionally, the time and data stamp mayrefer to the time at which this data is sent to EMR server 98 bycaregiver assistance application 124. EMR server 98, upon receipt ofthis data, updates the patient's electronic medical record with the newdata, and caregiver assistance application 124 returns back to step 154,thereby enabling the caregiver to complete another rounding task and/oranother one of the tasks associated with task menu 174.

After completing step 256 (FIG. 6), caregiver assistance application 124is configured, in at least some embodiments, to update any timer that isassociated with the rounding task that was just completed. In otherwords, caregiver assistance application 124 may be configured toimplement a reminder algorithm 145 that reminds the caregivers of tasksthat they are to perform. Such tasks may include the rounding tasks.Thus, for example, if a caregiver is to perform a rounding tasks for hisor her rooms, the reminder algorithm 145 will issue periodic remindersand/or display on the associated screens of electronic devices 104 theamount of time remaining until the rounding task should be performed. Inthese embodiments, caregiver assistance application 124 is configured toreset such timers after a caregiver completes a rounding task at step254. Thus, for example, if a caregiver is supposed to perform a roundingtask every two hours, and the caregiver has just completed a round forroom 1703, caregiver assistance application 124 automatically resets thetimer for room 1703 to two hours after step 256 is completed. Thecorresponding time information displayed on the screens of mobileelectronic devices 104 a is therefore also automatically reset, therebyproviding the caregivers with up-to-date indications of how much time isleft until the next rounding task is to be performed. Caregiverassistance application 124 maintains and updates timers for roundingtasks associated with each room and/or patient as well as, in someembodiments, timers for other tasks.

Returning to step 254 of algorithm 140 (FIG. 6), if the patient supportapparatus 20 is determined by caregiver assistance application 124 tonot be compliant at that step, it proceeds to either 1st control path280 or second control path 282, depending upon the particular embodimentof caregiver assistance application 124. Turning first to the embodimentin which caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds to first controlpath 280, caregiver assistance application 124 implements thestatus/command algorithm 147. That is, caregiver assistance application124 proceeds to step 258 and waits there to receive a command from thecaregiver that will remotely change the patient support apparatus 20 toa compliant state. As noted previously, the status/command algorithm 147allows caregiver assistance application 124 to receive patient supportapparatus commands from a caregiver and relay those commands to thecorresponding patient support apparatus 20. This enables the caregiverto remotely change the state of the patient support apparatus 20 to bein a compliant state.

For example, if caregiver assistance application 124 determines at step254 that the patient support apparatus 20 is not in a compliant statebecause the exit detection system 46 is not currently armed, caregiverassistance application 124 will display an indication informing thecaregiver that this is the cause of the non-compliant state. It willalso display a control that enables the caregiver to use the mobileelectronic device 104 a to arm the exit detection system. In someembodiments, this control is simply a display of exit detection systemstatus indicator 166 and tapping on this indicator 166 toggles betweenarming and disarming exit detection system 46. Other types of controlsmay also or alternatively be displayed. In response to the user tappingon the control to arm the exit detection system 46, the mobileelectronic device 104 a sends a message to caregiver assistance server90 instructing caregiver assistance application 124 to send a command tothe patient support apparatus 20 to arm its exit detection system 46.This message is sent at part of step 266 of algorithm 140.

In response to this message, caregiver assistance application 124proceeds to step 268 (FIG. 6) where it either sends a command directlyto the corresponding patient support apparatus 20 to arm its exitdetection system 46, or it sends the command to patient supportapparatus server 86, which in turn relays the command to the appropriatepatient support apparatus 20. In either scenario, the command isreceived by the patient support apparatus 20 and controller 48 respondsby arming the exit detection system.

The arming of the exit detection system 46 by controller 48 also promptscontroller 48 to send a new status message to patient support apparatusserver 86 that updates the current status of the patient supportapparatus 20. This updated status includes the fact that the exitdetection system 46 is now armed. Patient support apparatus server 86forwards this updated status to caregiver assistance application 124,which receives it at step 276 (FIG. 6). Using this updated status data,caregiver assistance application 124 returns to step 254 where it againchecks to see if the patient support apparatus 20 is in a compliantstate or not. If it is, it proceeds to step 256 and takes the actionsassociated with step 256 that were previously described. If the patientsupport apparatus 20 is still out of compliance, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 returns to first control path 280 and step 258 where itwaits to receive another command from the caregiver for changing thestate of the patient support apparatus 20.

In some embodiments, caregiver assistance application 124 is configuredto only allow the caregiver to remotely change those states of thepatient support apparatus 20 that do not involve any motion. That is,the caregiver is only allowed to use his or her mobile electronic device104 a at step 266 to send non-movement commands to the patient supportapparatus 20. This is done in order to avoid the situation wheremovement occurs on patient support apparatus 20 when the caregiver maynot be present in the room, and such movement may startle the patientand/or be impeded by an obstacle, such as, but not limited to, thepatient himself or herself. Such unattended movement may therefore leadto injuries. Therefore, in some embodiments, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 only forwards non-moving commands, such as, but notlimited to, commands to arm/disarm the exit detection system 46,arm/disarm the bed watch function, and turn on/off the brake.

In those embodiments of caregiver assistance application 124 where itfollows second control path 282 (FIG. 6), caregiver assistanceapplication proceeds to step 264 after it determines at step 254 thatthe patient support apparatus 20 in not in a compliant state. At step264, caregiver assistance application 124 displays a screen (not shown)on the mobile electronic device 104 a that includes an acknowledgementinput. The acknowledgement input is an input that the caregiver mustactively touch, or otherwise activate, and includes a message indicatingthat the patient support apparatus 20 is not in a compliant state. Afterthe caregiver acknowledges that the patient support apparatus 20 is notin a compliant state at step 264, caregiver assistance application 124proceeds to step 256 and takes the actions associated with step 256 thatwere previously described. In addition to those actions, caregiverassistance application 124 also sends to EMR server 98 data indicatingthat the non-compliant state of the patient support apparatus 20 wasactively acknowledged (and a time and date of the acknowledgment, insome embodiments). Caregiver assistance application 124 may also sendthe identity of the caregiver who performed this acknowledgement to EMRserver 98.

It can be seen from a comparison of first and second control paths 280and 282 (FIG. 6) that caregiver assistance application 124 may beconfigured to either not allow a caregiver to upload rounding data toEMR server 98 if the patient support apparatus 20 is not in a compliantstate (first path 280) or to allow the caregiver to upload the roundingdata to EMR server 98 for a non-compliant patient support apparatus 20,provided the caregiver actively acknowledges (at step 264) that thepatient support apparatus 20 is not in a compliant state (second path282). Either control path 280 and 282 therefore encourages the caregiverto ensure that the patient support apparatus 20 is in a compliant state,thereby helping the healthcare facility to achieve higher rates ofpatient support apparatus compliancy.

It will be understood that caregiver assistance application 124 may bemodified in still other embodiments to include alternative paths tocontrol paths 280 and 282, and/or to include modifications to thesecontrol paths. For example, in at least one embodiment, caregiverassistance application 124 follows a third alternative path (not shown)in which the caregiver has access to an “update status” control onmobile electronic device 104 a. The “update status” control, whenactivated by the caregiver, causes the mobile electronic device 104 a tosend a message to caregiver assistance application 124 instructingcaregiver assistance application 124 to request an updated status of thepatient support apparatus 20 from patient support apparatus server 86.The inclusion of the “update status” control allows a caregiver who ispositioned next to the patient support apparatus 20 to directly utilizethe controls 72 on patient support apparatus 20 to change the patientsupport apparatus 20 to a compliant state. Once in the compliant state,pressing the “update status” control causes the now-compliant state ofthe patient support apparatus 20 to be communicated to caregiverassistance application 124, which then moves to step 256 of roundingalgorithm 140, thereby allowing the rounding data to be uploaded to EMRserver 98.

One modification to this alternative third control path that may beimplemented is to configure caregiver assistance application 124 torepetitively and/or automatically request updated statuses from thepatient support apparatuses 20. In this modified embodiment, it is notnecessary for a caregiver to press, or otherwise activate, an “updatestatus” control. Instead, caregiver assistance application 124automatically receives patient support apparatus status updates. Thus,in this embodiment, once the caregiver assistance application 124receives a status update for the patient support apparatus 20 thatindicates that the patient support apparatus 20 is in a compliant state,it automatically moves to step 256 without requiring the caregiver tomanually manipulate any controls on the mobile electronic device 104 a.

In still other embodiments, any of the features of control paths 280,282, or the third alternative control path described above may becombined together. For example, in some embodiments, caregiverassistance application 124 may be configured to display three options tothe caregiver after determining at step 254 that the patient supportapparatus 20 is out of compliance: (a) a patient support apparatuscommand input, (b) an acknowledgement input; and (c) an “update status”input. The caregiver can then decide whether to use the mobileelectronic device 104 a to change the patient support apparatus state(option a); acknowledge the non-compliant state of the patient supportapparatus 20 without correcting it (option b); or change the patientsupport apparatus 20 state using the controls 72 on the patient supportapparatus 20 itself and request that the updated status be communicatedto caregiver assistance application 124 (option c). Still othervariations may be implemented.

Returning now to step 252 of caregiver rounding algorithm 140 (FIG. 6),caregiver assistance system 106 may be modified to capture verificationdata at step 252 in a variety of manners different from what waspreviously described above with respect to step 252 and FIG. 15. Two ofthese different manners are illustrated in FIGS. 16 and 17. After acaregiver has completed the caregiver assistance questions of FIGS.10-13 and steps 208, 246, 248, and 250, caregiver assistance applicationmay be configured in some embodiments to execute step 252 by having thecaregiver take a photograph of the patient support apparatus 20 itself,rather than the QR code, or other code, on the display 70 of the patientsupport apparatus 20. An example of this type of verification is shownin FIG. 16, which shows a first alternative verification screen 290.

First alternative verification screen 290, like verification screen 270of FIG. 15, includes a camera image window 272 that shows the imagecurrently being detected by the camera built into mobile electronicdevice 104 a. In order for a caregiver to properly verify that he or shehas completed a rounding task associated with a particular patient, heor she aims the camera of the mobile electronic device 104 a such thatthe camera is pointed at a designated portion of the patient supportapparatus 20. In the example shown in FIG. 16, the designated portionincludes the foot end of patient support apparatus 20. The designatedportion may vary, depending upon the particular patient supportapparatus 20, but should include whatever portion of the patient supportapparatus 20 includes sufficient information to uniquely identify thepatient support apparatus 20 and distinguish it from other patientsupport apparatuses 20 within the healthcare facility. Thisidentification information may include a sticker with a serial number onit, an engraved serial number, a sticker or other structure coupled tothe patient support apparatus 20, and/or any other kind of imageinformation that identifies the particular patient support apparatus 20.Once that portion of the patient support apparatus 20 is within thefield of view of the camera of mobile electronic device 104 a, thecaregiver presses the image capture icon 274 and the mobile electronicdevice 104 a takes a picture of that portion of the patient supportapparatus 20. The mobile electronic device 104 a also sends the capturedimage to caregiver assistance application 124 where it is analyzed toverify that the patient support apparatus 20 in the image matches thepatient support apparatus assigned to the patient for whom the caregiverjust completed his or her rounding tasks, as discussed previously. Ifthere is a match, caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds to step256 where it uploads the rounding data and other data (including thecapture image) to EMR server 98.

In alternative embodiment, caregiver assistance application 124 isconfigured to have the caregiver capture an image of the patient supportapparatus 20 using the camera of mobile electronic device 104 a, but theparticular portion of patient support apparatus 20 that is captured isimmaterial. In this modified embodiment, the caregiver turns on thelocation feature (GPS, WiFi triangulation, etc.) of the mobileelectronic device 104 a and has the mobile electronic deviceautomatically append a geographic location to the photograph capturedusing image window 272. The mobile electronic device 104 a forwards theimage data (i.e. photograph) to caregiver assistance application 124,along with the location data and, in some cases, the time and date atwhich the photo was taken. Caregiver assistance application 124 usesknowledge of the geographic location of each room within the healthcarefacility (stored in data repository 128, or elsewhere) to determine ifthe location at which the photograph was taken matches the room in whichthe corresponding patient is located. If so, it proceeds to step 256 ofalgorithm 140. If not, it displays an error message.

After a caregiver has completed the caregiver assistance questions ofFIGS. 10-13 and steps 208, 246, 248, and 250, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 is configured in some embodiments to display secondalternative verification screen 300 of FIG. 17, rather than firstalternative verification screen 290 of FIG. 16 (or verification screen270 of FIG. 15). In such embodiments, the caregiver is instructed to notonly capture an image (take a picture) using the camera function of themobile electronic device 104 a, but to also use the selfie feature builtinto the camera of mobile electronic device 104 a that enables themobile electronic device to simultaneously capture both a forwardlooking photograph and a rearward looking photograph of the caregiverhimself or herself. In other words, caregiver assistance application 124instructs the caregiver to take a picture using both the forward facingcamera of the mobile electronic device 104 a and the rearward facingcamera of the mobile electronic device 104 a. The rearward facing camerais intended to capture an image of the caregiver while the forwardfacing camera is intended to capture an image of all or a portion of thepatient support apparatus 20. An example of this is shown in FIG. 17,which includes a forward-facing image 304 and a rearward facing image306. The forward facing image 304 captures a portion of the patientsupport apparatus and the rearward facing image 306 captures an image ofthe caregiver.

The purpose of the rearward facing camera image of the caregiver is todocument the actual presence of the caregiver at the bedside of thepatient when he or she has completed the rounding tasks associated withthat patient. As with the other verification processes, caregiverassistance application 124 processes the image data from both theforward and rearward facing cameras to identify the patient supportapparatus 20 within the forward facing image 304. This image may be ofan identifier of the patient support apparatus 20, of a QR or othercode, or of any portion of the patient support apparatus 20. Caregiverassistance application 124, in at least one embodiment, also processesthe rearward image 306 using conventional facial recognition technologyto determine the identity of the caregiver captured therein. In otherembodiments, caregiver assistance application 124 does not process thecaregiver image data, but instead forwards it to EMR server 98 at step256 unanalyzed.

In another embodiment, mobile electronic device 104 a includes nativesoftware onboard that perform facial recognition. In this embodiment,the controller of mobile electronic device 104 a is configured tocompare an image (taken, for example, by using the digital camerafunction of the mobile electronic device) of the caregiver with abaseline image taken previously of the caregiver and to determine ifthere is a match. In other words, in this embodiment, mobile electronicdevice 104 a is programmed to perform facial recognition of the selfiephotograph captured by mobile electronic device 104 a and, if the selfieis determined to match the authorized caregiver, to forward the captureddata to the caregiver assistance application 124. The data forwarded tocaregiver assistance application 124 in this embodiment, however, mayomit the actual image data of the caregiver, thereby reducing consumedbandwidth, as well as repeated storage of a caregiver's face. Instead ofthe image data, the mobile electronic device 124 is programmed to send amessage confirming that the selfie image captured by the mobileelectronic device 104 a is of an authorized caregiver (and in someembodiments, the identity of that authorized caregiver). Caregiverassistance application 124 can be configured in this embodiment (as wellas other embodiments) to omit any facial recognition software.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other manners ofverifying the caregiver's presence at the patient's bedside during therounding task may be utilized by caregiver assistance application 124,including verification techniques that do not utilize a camera. Forexample, in some embodiments, patient support apparatuses 20 include anear field transceiver and/or a short range RF transceiver (e.g.Bluetooth, or infrared) that is detectable by mobile electronic device104 a. By bring the mobile electronic device 104 a into sufficientlyclose proximity to the transceiver, the mobile electronic device 104 ais able to wirelessly receive a signal from the patient supportapparatus 20 that identifies that particular patient support apparatus20 and, in some embodiments, also indicates a time. Caregiver assistanceapplication 124 uses the reception of that signal as verification of thecaregiver's physical presence at the patient's bedside during therounding task. The detected signal and/or the fact that the detectedsignal was received may be forwarded to the EMR server 98 at step 256(FIG. 6).

It will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variousother modifications may be made to rounding algorithm 140. Theseinclude, but are not limited to, skipping the compliance step 254completely (along with control paths 280 and/or 282); skipping thecapture verification data step 252 and instead proceeding directly fromstep 250 to step 254; changing the order of one or more steps (e.g. step192 is moved ahead of step 188 or 154); and/or combinations of one ormore of these modifications.

Turning now to the patient fall risk reduction algorithm 143 ofcaregiver assistance system 106, if a caregiver selects fall task icon178 (FIGS. 9-17) at step 159 of general algorithm 226 (FIG. 5),caregiver assistance application 124 begins executing fall riskreduction algorithm 143. One example of fall risk reduction algorithm143 is shown in FIG. 18. Fall risk reduction algorithm 143 begins at astep 340 where caregiver assistance application 124 receives or verifiesa room selection or a bed selection. In response to such a roomselection or bed selection, caregiver assistance application 124proceeds to step 342 where it determines if the particular patientassigned to the selected room and/or selected bed has had a fall riskassessment performed or not. Step 342 may be accomplished in severalmanners. In one particular embodiment, caregiver assistance applicationsends a request to EMR server 98 requesting the fall risk assessment forthe patient assigned to the room or bed identified at step 340. If theEMR server 98 responds that there is no such fall risk assessmentcurrently on file for the patient, fall risk reduction algorithm 143checks to see if the fall risk assessment is stored elsewhere, such as,but not limited to, data storage 128. If there is no such fall riskassessment stored there, caregiver assistance application 124 may beconfigured by administrators of the healthcare facility to search inother locations. If no locations contain the fall risk assessment forthe particular patient, caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds tostep 346. If a fall risk assessment is located for the particularpatient, caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds to step 344.

When no fall risk assessment has been performed for the patient,caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds from step 342 to step 346.At step 346, caregiver assistance application 124 displays a first fallrisk assessment screen 400 that is used to perform a fall riskassessment for the patient assigned to the room or bed identified instep 340. One example of such an initial fall risk assessment screen 400is shown in FIG. 19. FIG. 19 is the first of six fall risk assessmentquestion screens (FIGS. 19-24) used in one embodiment of caregiverassistance application 124. These six screens are designed to implementthe Morse fall risk assessment, which is also sometimes referred to asthe Morse fall scale. The Morse fall risk assessment is a numericallyscored fall risk assessment that ranks patients into various qualitativecategories (e.g. no fall risk, low fall risk, and high fall risk). Itwill be understood that caregiver assistance application 124 can beconfigured to implement other fall risk assessments besides the Morsefall risk assessment (e.g. the Hendrich fall risk assessment, the JohnsHopkins fall risk assessment, etc.), and/or it may be supplementedand/or partially modified with other questions. Still other variationsmay be made to the fall risk assessment by authorized personnel 136 ofthe healthcare facility, such as by using computer 134 to access andre-configure the settings of caregiver assistance application 124.

Screen 400 includes many of the same elements found in other screensdiscussed herein, such as, but not limited to, room identifier location198, top portion 202, bottom portion 204, task menu 174, bed status bar170, exit detection system status 166, bed watch system status 168, andbed icon 164. Bottom portion 204 differs from the previously describedbottom portions in that it includes a first fall risk assessmentquestion 402. The first fall risk question identifies a questionintended to be asked by the caregiver of the patient while the caregiveris determining what level of fall risk the patient possesses. Caregiverassistance application 124 displays this first question 402 at step 346of algorithm 143 (FIG. 18).

The specific first fall risk question 402 displayed at step 346 ofalgorithm 143 is a question regarding the patient's fall history.Specifically, it is a question of whether or not the patient has everfallen recently (such as within the last three months, although othertime periods can be used). If the patient answers yes, the user touchesthe “yes” icon 404. If the patient answers no, the user touches the “no”icon. Further, caregiver assistance application 124 assigns a pointtotal to each answer. If the patient answers “yes,” application 124assigns the patient a point value of 25. If the patient answers no,application 124 assigns the patient a point value of zero. Caregiverassistance application 124 sums these point values as the caregiverproceeds through all of the fall risk assessment screens associated withthe Morse fall assessment (e.g. FIGS. 19-24). The total score aftercompleting all of the questions is used by caregiver assistanceapplication 124 to determine the patient's qualitative fall risk, asdiscussed further below.

It will be understood that, although first question 402 is describedherein as being the “first” question shown after fall task icon 176 isselected, the particular order of questions displayed by caregiverassistance application 124 may be varied, and the term “first” in thephrase “first fall risk assessment question” is merely used todistinguish the question from other fall risk assessment questions, notto indicate any particular significance to its sequential order.

Returning to fall risk reduction algorithm 143 of FIG. 18, afterdisplaying the first fall risk assessment screen 400 at step 346,caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds to step 348 where it waitsfor the caregiver to provide an answer to the first fall risk question(e.g. question 402). When the user answers with either a “yes” or a “no”answer, the touching of either the “yes” icon 404 or the “no” icon 406corresponds to step 350 of algorithm 143. That is, touching either ofthese icons 404 or 406 inputs the fall risk answer into the electronicdevice 104, which forwards the data to caregiver assistance application124. After completing step 350 of algorithm 143, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 proceeds to step 352 where it determines if there areany more fall risk assessment questions that need to be completed aspart of the fall risk assessment. Because the example described hereinuses the Morse fall risk assessment, which comprises six questions,caregiver assistance application 124 returns at step 352 back to step346 and displays the next fall risk question (and repeats this anotherfour times).

FIG. 20 illustrates a second fall risk assessment question screen 410.Second fall risk assessment question screen 410 includes a second fallrisk assessment question 412 that is answered by the caregiver. Secondfall risk assessment question 412 asks if the patient has received morethan one medical diagnosis. This may be determined by the caregiver byreviewing the patient's chart or other medical record. If the patienthas been assigned two or more medical diagnoses, the caregiver pressesthe “yes” icon 404. If the patient has only been assigned a singlemedical diagnosis, the caregiver presses the “no” icon 406. Caregiverassistance application assigns a point value of fifteen to the yesanswer and zero to the no answer. After answering the second fall riskassessment question 412, the caregiver presses the “next” icon 214,which brings up third fall risk assessment screen 416 (FIG. 21). Theinputting of an answer to second fall risk assessment question 412corresponds to step 350 of algorithm 143; the pressing of the next icon214 corresponds to choosing the “yes” option at step 352 of algorithm143, and the display of third fall risk assessment screen 416 afterpressing the next icon 214 corresponds to step 346 of algorithm 143.

Third fall risk assessment question 418 (FIG. 21) comprises threeseparate sub-questions that are part of the Morse fall risk assessment.In the first sub-question, the caregiver determines if the patient hasbeen assigned to bed rest, or if the patient is able to walk (even withnurse assistance). If either of these conditions is true, the caregiverpresses a top icon 420 shown in FIG. 21 that is labeled “bedrest/nurseassist.” In response to pressing top icon 420, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 adds a zero value to the patient's fall risk score(which is the sum of the scores previously assigned to the answers tofirst and second fall risk questions 402 and 412). If neither of theseconditions are true, the caregiver determines if the patient needscrutches, a cane, or a walker in order to walk. If the patient needs anyof these devices, the caregiver presses a middle icon 422 on screen 416.Middle icon 422 is labeled “crutches/cane/walker” in FIG. 21. Inresponse to pressing middle icon 422, caregiver assistance application124 add a value of fifteen to the patient's fall risk score. If thepatient does not need a crutch, cane, or walker to walk, the caregiverdetermines if the patient holds onto furniture, or other stable items,when he or she walks. If the patient does this, the caregiver presses abottom icon 424 on screen 416, which is labeled “furniture” in FIG. 21.In response to pressing bottom icon 424, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 adds a value of thirty to the patient's fall risk score.After choosing one of top, middle, or bottom icons 420, 422, or 424, thecaregiver presses the next icon 214, which causes caregiver assistanceapplication 124 to display a fourth fall risk assessment question screen430, an example of which is shown in FIG. 22.

Fourth fall risk assessment question screen 430 includes a fourth fallrisk question 432 displayed in bottom portion 204. Fourth fall riskquestion 432 asks if the patient has an intravenous (IV) apparatus orheparin lock inserted. If the patient does, the caregiver presses the“yes” icon 404. If the patient does not, the caregiver presses the “no”icon 406. Caregiver assistance application 124 adds a value of twenty tothe patient's fall risk score if the caregiver answers “yes” (and adds avalue of zero if the caregiver answers no). When the caregiver pressesthe next icon 214 on screen 430, caregiver assistance application 124displays a fifth fall risk assessment question screen 440, one exampleof which is shown in FIG. 23.

Fifth fall risk assessment question screen 440 includes a fifth fallrisk question 442 displayed in bottom portion 204. Fifth fall riskquestion 442 asks the caregiver to assess the patient's gait while he orshe walks. More specifically, fifth fall risk question 442 asks thecaregiver to qualify the patient's walking gait as one of “normal,”“weak”, or “impaired.” The caregiver characterizes the patient's gait asnormal if the patient walks with his or her head erect, his or her armsswinging freely, and takes strides without hesitation. The caregivercharacterizes the patient's gait as “weak” if the patient is stoopedwhile walking but is able to lift his or her head while walking withoutlosing his or her balance. The caregiver characterizes the patient'sgait as “impaired” if the patient has difficulty rising from a chair,the patient's head is down, and/or he or she watches the ground whilewalking. An “impaired” assessment may also be assigned if the patient'sbalance is poor, the patient grasps onto furniture, another person, orsome sort of walking aid. Once the caregiver has determined the propercharacterization, the caregiver presses the corresponding top icon 444,middle icon 446, or bottom icon 448. Caregiver assistance application124 adds a value of zero to the patient's fall risk score if thecaregiver selects “normal” (top icon 444), adds a value of ten if thecaregiver selects “weak” (middle icon 446), and adds a value of twentyif the caregiver selects “impaired” (bottom icon 448). When thecaregiver thereafter presses next icon 214, caregiver assistanceapplication displays a sixth fall risk assessment question screen 450,one example of which is shown in FIG. 24.

Sixth fall risk assessment question screen 450 includes a sixth fallrisk question 452. Sixth fall risk question 452 asks the patient toassess his or her own abilities at walking (e.g. “do you need assistancewalking to the restroom?”). If the patient's answer does not match whatthe caregiver has observed and determined from the previous questions,the caregiver selects the bottom icon 456 (labeled “forgets limitations”in FIG. 24). If the patient's answer is consistent with what thecaregiver has observed and determined from the previous questions, thecaregiver selects the top icon 454 (labeled “oriented to own ability”).Caregiver assistance application 124 adds a value of zero to thepatient's fall risk score if he or she selects the top icon 454, andadds a value of fifteen if he or she selects bottom icon 456.

After the answer to sixth fall risk assessment question 452 has beenprovided to caregiver assistance application 124 by the caregiver,caregiver assistance application 124 proceeds to step 354 of algorithm143 where it analyzes the results of the six questions to determine whatlevel of fall risk the patient possesses. Application 124 does this bysumming up all of the values from the six questions of screens 400, 410,416, 430, 440, and 450, the result of which is the patient's numericfall risk score. Although different methods of scoring may be used(and/or customized by a particular healthcare facility), in someembodiments caregiver assistance application 124 converts this numericfall risk score into a qualitative rating, such as zero risk, low risk,moderate risk, and high risk. In one such embodiment, caregiverassistance application assigns a zero risk rating when the numeric fallrisk score is zero, assigns a low risk rating if the numeric fall riskscore is greater than zero but less than 25; assigns a moderate riskrating if numeric fall risk score is greater than 25 but less than 45;and assigns a high risk rating if the numeric fall risk score is greaterthan 45. In an alternative embodiment, caregiver assistance application124 assigns a no risk rating for numeric scores between zero and 25, alow risk rating for numeric scores between 25 and 50, and a high riskfor numeric scores greater than 50. Still other qualitative ratings maybe used and/or other score ranges may be selected for matchingquantitative scores with qualitative scores. Further, the point valuesassigned to each individual question may also be varied from thatdescribed above.

After determining the patient's qualitative fall risk rating, caregiverassistance application sends either or both of the qualitative andquantitative fall risk ratings to the EMR server 98. The fall riskrating is sent by caregiver assistance application 124 along with one ormore identifiers that identify which particular patient thejust-completed fall risk rating corresponds to. The particular patientto whom the fall risk rating is assigned may be determined in any of themanners previously described, such as by correlating the room number ofthe patient with the patient's ID, correlating the patient supportapparatus's identifier 186 with the room and/or the patient's ID, and/orby performing still other correlations. In this regard, it is to benoted that caregiver assistance application 124 displays the room number(and specific bed bay identifier if the room is a shared room) of thepatient to whom the fall risk rating applies during the display of thescreens shown in FIGS. 19-24. In the particular example shown, the roomnumber is “7090,” and all of the answers to the fall risk questionsshown in these screens are assigned to the patient who has been assignedto room 7090. The caregiver therefore is provided with a reminder duringthe fall risk assessment process of the room number (and thus ultimatelythe specific patient) to which (or whom) the fall risk assessment isapplicable. In some embodiments, caregiver assistance application 124may be configured to retrieve the actual patient's name from ADT server98 and display it during the fall risk assessment process so that thecaregiver is informed of the specific patient whose fall risk they areassessing. Whether displaying the specific patient name or the specificroom number, the caregiver ensures that the fall risk assessment isattributed to the correct individual by assuring that the room number,or patient's name, displayed on the screens 400, 410, 416, 430, 440, and450 corresponds to the patient (or the patient's room) the caregiver isevaluating for fall risk.

After sending the fall risk assessment and the corresponding patient'sname to EMR server 98 at step 354, caregiver assistance application 124displays the qualitative risk rating at step 344 (FIG. 18). One exampleof the manner in which the qualitative fall risk rating may be displayedis shown in fall risk screen 460 of FIG. 25. Fall risk screen 460includes a fall risk warning added to the status location 200. Fall riskscreen 460 also includes a summary window 466 displaying multiple piecesof information as a result of the fall risk assessment that was justcompleted. More specifically, summary window 466 includes both aqualitative fall risk rating identifier 468 and a patient fall riskreduction protocol summary 470. The qualitative fall risk ratingidentifier 468 corresponds to the qualitative fall risk ratingdetermined after receiving the answers to the six questions shown inFIGS. 19-24. In the particular example shown in FIG. 25, the qualitativefall risk rating identifier 468 is a “high” rating, which indicates thatthe patient has a high risk of falling.

The fall risk reduction protocol summary 470 summarizes the steps to betaken in order to mitigate the risk of the patient falling. That is,fall risk reduction protocol summary 470 briefly summarizes the fallrisk reduction steps contained within fall risk reduction protocol 93(FIG. 2). In some embodiments, the fall risk reduction protocol 93 isinitially set by the manufacturer of caregiver assistance system 106 butis able to be modified by an authorized person 136 of the healthcarefacility in order to meet the desires of the healthcare administratorsof the particular healthcare facility in which the system 106 installed.In other embodiments, the fall risk reduction protocol 93 may be set bythe manufacturer without being customizable, while in still otherembodiments, the fall risk reduction protocol 93 may be undefined untilthe healthcare facility administrators determine its contents.

In general, the fall risk reduction protocol 93 identifies what stepsare to be taken by caregivers with respect to the patient supportapparatus 20 in order to reduce the risk of the patient falling.Generally speaking, these steps typically include one or more of thefollowing: ensuring the brake on patient support apparatus 20 isactivated; placing at least three of the siderails 36 of patient supportapparatus 20 in their raised position; arming the exit detection system46 of the patient support apparatus 20 (including arming a particularzone of the exit detection system 46); lowering the height of litterframe 28 to either its lowest height, or a height that is no taller thana specified threshold; and, in some cases, arming a monitoring system(e.g. the bed watch system identified in the bed watch status indicator168) that issues an alert if any of the conditions of the fall riskreduction protocol 93 are changed out of their desired states. All ofthese steps are steps that are taken with respect to fall-riskcomponents of patient support apparatus 20. Fall-risk components arethose components of patient support apparatus 20 that have two differentstates, at least one of which is more likely to reduce the risk offalling. Thus, the fall-risk components include at least the followingcomponents of patient support apparatus 20: the siderails 36, the brake,the litter frame 28, exit detection system 46, and the bed watchmonitoring system. Fall risk reduction protocol 93 specifies what thedesired state is for these fall risk components when the patient has anon-zero fall risk. In most situations, the desired states are thoseindicated above (e.g. brake on, at least three siderails up, litterframe lowered, exit detection system armed, and bed watch monitoringsystem (if included) also armed).

In those embodiments where the qualitative fall risk rating has morethan two categories (e.g. more than high risk and low risk), fall riskreduction protocol 93 may include different definitions, one for each ofthe different fall risk rating categories. For example, fall riskreduction protocol 93 may specify that for high fall risk patients, afirst set of the fall-risk components must be in their desired states,and that for medium fall risk patients, a second set of the fall-riskcomponents must be in their desired states, wherein the second set iseither a subset of the first set, or has some other variation withrespect to the first set. In other embodiments, fall risk reductionprotocol 93 may be the same for all patients that do not have a zerofall risk rating (e.g. protocol 93 may be the same for high and mediumfall risk patients).

Fall risk reduction protocol summary 470 summarizes the desired statesfor the fall-risk components of the fall risk reduction protocol 93. Asshown in FIG. 25, fall risk reduction protocol summary 470 indicates“low bed height,” “3 side rails up,” “bed exit: zone 2,” and “brakeset.” This means that the particular fall risk reduction protocol 93shown in this example has identified the litter frame 28, siderails 36,exit detection system 46, and brake as fall-risk components, and thattheir desired states are a lowered height, or lowest height, for thelitter frame 28, a raised position for at least three of the siderails36, an armed state for exit detection system 46 that is set to zone 2,and an activated brake. Fall risk reduction protocol summary 470therefore acts as a reminder to the caregiver to ensure that all ofthese fall-risk components are set to their desired states before thecaregiver leaves the room in which patient support apparatus 20 and itsassociated patient are located.

In order for caregiver assistance application 124 to display the fallrisk reduction protocol summary 470 in summary window 466 of FIG. 25,application 124 first retrieves the fall risk reduction protocol 93.This is performed at step 356 of algorithm 143. As indicated in FIG. 2,fall risk reduction protocol 93 may be stored in memory 91. In otherembodiments, fall risk reduction protocol 93 may be stored elsewhere.Still further, patient support apparatuses 20 are configured in at leastone embodiment to allow a user to make changes to the fall riskreduction protocol 93 using one of the control panels 42. And, as noted,one or more authorized individuals 136 may modify or store fall riskreduction protocol 93 using a computer (e.g. 134) that is incommunication with network 74 and caregiver assistance server 90.

Returning to FIG. 18, once caregiver assistance application 124retrieves the fall risk reduction protocol 93, it determines what thedesired states are for each of the fall-risk components. This isaccomplished at step 358 of algorithm 143. As noted, the desired statesare defined in fall risk reduction protocol 93. After determining thesedesired states at step 358, caregiver assistance application 124 movesto step 360 where it determines if any of the current states are not intheir respective desired states. Caregiver assistance application 124continuously monitors the states of the fall-risk components of thepatient support apparatus 20 within the healthcare facility and usesthis repetitively updated state data to determine at step 360 if any ofthe fall-risk components are not in, or have moved out of, theirrespective desired states. The updated state data is received frompatient support apparatuses 20, which send their state data to caregiverassistance application 124, either directly or, as noted previously,indirectly via patient support apparatus server 86. This state data isalternatively referred to herein as status data, and includes, forexample, the current states of the siderails, brake, litter frame, exitdetection system, bed watch monitoring system, etc.

If caregiver assistance application 124 determines at step 360 that anyof the fall-risk components of the patient support apparatus 20 are notin their desired state according to the patient fall risk protocol 93,it moves to step 364 where it issues an alert, as will be discussed ingreater detail below. If it determines at step 360 that none of thefall-risk components of patient support apparatus 20 are out of theirdesired state, it moves to step 362 where it continues to monitor thefall-risk components and checks to see if they remain in their desiredstates. From step 362, caregiver assistance application 124 moves tostep 380 where it returns to main algorithm 226 (FIG. 5) and allows thecaregiver to utilize other functions of caregiver assistance application124 and/or to display other screens that are not directly related to thepatient's fall risk. It is to be noted that the return to main algorithm226 does not terminate the continuous monitoring of the fall-riskcomponents of the patient support apparatuses, but instead allows thismonitoring process to continue in the background. Thus, for example, ifthe caregiver switches to using the patient rounding function ofcaregiver assistance application 124 (e.g. by pressing rounding taskicon 180) and the patient support apparatus 20 of a patient with a highfall risk has one of its fall-risk components change to an undesiredstate, caregiver assistance application 124 will still provide the alertof step 364 to the caregiver, even though application 124 may beexecuting a different algorithm at that particular time.

The alert that is issued at step 364 follows the alerting algorithm 149.Alerting algorithm 149 sends an alert to those electronic device(s) 104that have been configured to be notified (as defined in local rules 126)for the particular patient support apparatus 20 that has had a fall-riskcomponent moved to an undesired state. The alert is sent to thecaregiver's mobile device 104 a (and/or to stationary device(s) 104 b)regardless of whether or not the caregiver is in the same room, or sameward, as the patient support apparatus 20 that generated the alert. Thatis, alerting algorithm 149 provides each caregiver with alerts when anyof the patient support apparatuses 20 of the patients to whom he or sheis assigned have one or more of their fall-risk components change out oftheir respective desired states. Thus, for example, if a caregiver iscurrently in, say, room 7030 and that caregiver is assigned to patientsin rooms 7031, 7032, and 7033 and those patients are all high fallrisks, the caregiver will get an alert on his or her mobile electronicdevice 104 a while they are in room 7030 if any of the patient supportapparatuses 20 in rooms 7031, 7032, or 7033 have one or more of theirfall-risk components change out of their respective desired states.Further, caregiver assistance application 124 does this for eachcaregiver who has a mobile electronic device 104 a (as well as for allof the stationary electronic devices 104 b). As a result, each caregiveris apprised of changes in fall-risk components of the patient supportapparatuses 20 used by the particular patients to whom that caregiver isassigned to care for.

Returning to step 364 of algorithm 143, alerting algorithm 149 issues analert at this step in one or more different manners, depending upon howcaregiver assistance application 124 is custom-tailored by an authorizedadministrator of the healthcare facility, as well as depending upon theparticular embodiment of caregiver assistance application 124. In someembodiments of application 124, caregivers access application 124 ontheir mobile electronic devices 104 a by accessing a particular URLusing a conventional web browser. In these embodiments of application124, alerting algorithm 149 may not be able to always provide an alertto the caregiver via the web browser because the caregiver may have theweb browser closed, may be visiting a different web page, and/or may notbe currently logged into the application 124 via the web browser. Stillfurther, even if the caregiver is currently logged into the caregiverassistance application 124 via the web browser, it may be difficult toguarantee that the caregiver receives the alert because he or she mayhave the volume turned down on the mobile electronic device 104 a and/orhe or she may not be looking at the screen at the time the alert isissued.

In order to account for these and other possibilities, alertingalgorithm 149 may be configured to issue an alert in some embodiments bysending a text, email, or phone message to the mobile electronic device104 of the caregiver to whom the alert is directed. Because the mobileelectronic device 104 a is typically a smart phone or a tablet computer,the text, email, or phone message is delivered to another applicationthat is being executed by the device 104 a (e.g. the text app, the emailapp, or the phone app). Further, the mobile electronic device 104 a canbe easily set to issue a specific noise, sound, and/or vibration inresponse to an incoming text, phone call, and/or email. Still further,this specific noise, sound, and/or vibration happens even in thosesituations where the web browser on the mobile electronic device 104 ais closed, or the caregiver is not logged into application 124, or thevolume that sounds from websites are played at by the device 104 a (e.g.the media volume on a smart phone) have been turned off or set to low.Therefore, alerting algorithm 149 can utilize a separate mobile app onthe device 104 for alerting that is independent of the web browsing appon device 104 in order to ensure that alerts are communicated to thecaregivers, even when the web browsing app used to gain access toapplication 124 is turned off on device 104, or is not logged intoapplication 124.

As was also noted previously, in some alternative embodiments, caregiverapplication 124 is divided into two specific applications: a serverapplication and a mobile device application. In such embodiments, thecaregiver does not access caregiver application 124 via a web browserinstalled on his or her smart device 104 a, but instead does so byopening the mobile device application of caregiver application 124. Themobile device application is a specialized app that is downloaded to themobile electronic device 104 a and that is specifically designed to workin conjunction with the server application. In this embodiment, themobile device application is customized to operate with the specificoperating system of the mobile electronic device 104 a and, as a result,there may be different versions of the mobile device application thatare written for the different operating systems (e.g. an Androidversion, an iOS version, etc.). Such native applications, offer theadvantage of being able to operate in the background and cause themobile electronic device 104 a to issue a sound, vibrate, illuminate oneor more lights, etc. in response to an incoming alert, even if the userhas not manually opened that native application.

Regardless of the specific manner in which caregiver assistanceapplication 124 issues an alert at step 364 (FIG. 18), algorithm 143branches to different paths after step 365: a first path 366 and asecond path 368. First path 366 allows the user to remotely or locallychange the state of the fall-risk component on the patient supportapparatus 20 that caused the alert to issue. Second path 368 allows theuser to acknowledge the alert without changing the state of thefall-risk component. If the caregiver selects second path 368, caregiverassistance application 124 proceeds to step 378 where it waits for thecaregiver to acknowledge the alert without making any changes to thefall-risk component(s) that is out of its desired state. Caregiverassistance application 124 may be configured to accept thisacknowledgement in several different manners such as, but not limitedto, displaying an “acknowledge” or “ignore” icon that must be touched bythe caregiver to acknowledge the alert, or otherwise requiring thecaregiver to take some positive action with the mobile electronic device104 a that indicates that the caregiver received and is aware of thealert. Once the alert is received by caregiver assistance application124, algorithm 143 proceeds to step 362 and operates in the mannerpreviously discussed.

If the caregiver wishes to change the state of the fall-risk componentthat is no longer in its desired state, the caregiver can elect tofollow first path 366 (FIG. 18). First path 366 allows the caregiver tochange the state of the fall-risk component to its desired state eitherlocally or, in some cases, remotely. To change the state locally, thecaregiver must be present in the room in which the alerting patientsupport apparatus 20 is located. The caregiver makes the local change byutilizing one or more of the control panels 42 of the patient supportapparatus 20. To make the change remotely, the caregiver uses mobileelectronic device 104 a to send a command to the patient supportapparatus 20 to change the fall-risk component back to its desiredstate. In many embodiments, only commands that involve no physicalmovement on the patient support apparatus 20 are allowed to be carriedout remotely, such as arming the exit detection system, arming the bedwatch monitoring system, etc.

In order to remotely change the state of the fall-risk component usingmobile electronic device 104 a (or stationary electronic device 104 b),caregiver assistance application 124 waits to receive a command for thepatient support apparatus at step 370 (FIG. 18). Once the command isreceived, the command is sent by the electronic device 104 to thecaregiver assistance server 90 at step 372. When it is received by thecaregiver assistance application 124 operating on server 90, application124 forwards the command to the appropriate patient support apparatus 20at step 374. Thereafter, the patient support apparatus 20 implements thecommand and sends an updated set of data regarding its fall-riskcomponents, which are received by caregiver assistance application 124at step 376. Using this updated set of data, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 returns back to step 360 where it checks to see if thepatient support apparatus 20 has all of its fall-risk components intheir desired states. From step 360, caregiver assistance application124 proceeds in the manners previously described.

When mobile electronic device 104 a is used to send a command to changethe state of a fall-risk component of a patient support apparatus 20, itknows which specific patient support apparatus 20 to send the command tobased upon the room number (and/or patient name) displayed in statuslocation 200. That is, whatever room number, bed bay identifier, and/orpatient identifier is displayed in status location 200 at the time thecommand is sent identifies where the command will be sent. Whencaregiver assistance application 124 receives the command at server 90,it knows which patient support apparatus 20 to send it to based on itsknowledge of which patient support apparatuses 20 are assigned to whichrooms, bed bays, and/or patients.

It will be noted that the monitoring of the states of the fall-riskcomponents of the patient support apparatuses 20 that occurs at steps360 and 362 of algorithm 143 may involve more monitoring than isperformed by the bed watch monitoring system. That is, in at least oneembodiment, the patient fall risk protocol 93 may specify that the bedwatch monitoring system is turned on for high fall risk patients. Inthis case, algorithm 143 automatically monitors whether the bed watchmonitoring system is turned on or off for those patient supportapparatuses 20 to whom high fall risk patients have been assigned, andif it is off, algorithm 143 issues an alert. Thus, the fall riskreduction protocol 93 can provide an additional layer of monitoringbeyond what the bed watch monitoring feature offers: it can monitor thebed watch monitoring feature itself (which does not monitor itself).

It will also be noted that caregiver assistance application 124 alsopassively monitors all of the states of various components of thepatient support apparatuses 20, regardless of whether a patient is ahigh fall risk or not, and regardless of whether the patient has evenbeen assessed for fall risks or not (and also regardless of whether thebed watch monitoring system is armed or disarmed). The results of thispassive monitoring are displayed in top portion 202 of the screen shotsshown herein (e.g. FIGS. 19-26). This monitoring provides information tothe caregiver of the current state of the patient support apparatus 20so that the caregiver can remotely know the states of all of the patientsupport apparatuses 20 which are being used with his or her assignedpatients. Further, this passive monitoring may involve the monitoring ofa different set of components than the fall-risk components discussedabove, such as, but not limited to, whether the patient supportapparatus 20 is currently plugged into an electrical outlet, whether thenurse call system cable between the patient support apparatus 20 and thenurse call system is connected or disconnected, etc.

In some embodiments, when caregiver assistance application 124 issues analert due to a fall-risk component of a patient support apparatus 20moving out of its desired state, the alert may include a graphicalindication of the fall-risk component that has moved out of its desiredstate. For example, in all of the screens shown in FIGS. 19-27,caregiver assistance application 124 includes a bed icon 164. If any ofthe siderails are moved out of their desired position, caregiverassistance application 124 may graphically indicate this by changing thecolor of, or otherwise changing the visual appearance of, the siderailicon 176 corresponding to the siderail 36 that has moved out of itsdesired state. Additionally, if the height of the litter frame 28 movesabove its desired height, caregiver assistance application 124 maychange the color or appearance of the top of the litter frame shown inbed icon 164 (e.g. the top portion of the bed icon 164 that surroundsthe patient icon). If either the exit detection system 46 or the bedwatch monitoring system are changed to an undesired state, caregiverassistance application 124 may graphically indicate this byhighlighting, or otherwise changing the appearance of, exit detectionsystem status indicator 166 or bed watch status indicator 168. If thebrake moves out of its desired state, the portion of bed status bar 170indicating the brake status may be highlighted and/or otherwise changedvisually. Still other graphical changes may be made for alerts involvinga fall-risk components that are moved out of its desired state.

In at least one embodiment, caregiver assistance application 124 allowsa user to make changes to the exit detection system aspects of thepatient fall risk reduction protocol 93 for a particular patient. Morespecifically, in at least one embodiment, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 allows a caregiver to override the exit detection systemzone that is specified by the fall risk reduction protocol 93. Forexample, in many embodiments, the fall risk reduction protocol 93specifies that the exit detection system 46 is armed for a high fallrisk patient, and that zone 2 (the middle sensitive zone) is chosen. Ifthe caregiver wishes to arm a different zone, however, caregiverassistance application 124 allows the caregiver to do with withoutcausing an alert when application 124 detects that the incorrect zone isarmed at step 360 of algorithm 143.

Two examples of this customized zone selection are shown in FIGS. 26 and27. In the screenshot 480 of FIG. 26, the caregiver has selected zone 1of the exit detection system 46 and caregiver assistance application 124has displayed a warning window 482 thereon. Warning window 482 notifiesthe caregiver that zone 2, not zone 1, is the zone specified by patientfall risk reduction protocol 93. If the user wishes to select zone 1instead of zone 2, however, the user is free to do so by pressing theconfirm icon 484. If the user presses the confirm icon 484, caregiverassistance application 124, in at least one embodiment, updates the fallrisk reduction protocol 93 for that particular patient only such that noalerts are issued at step 364 because of zone 1 being armed instead ofzone 2. In this embodiment, caregiver assistance application 124automatically changes the fall risk reduction protocol 93 back to zone 2if a new patient is assigned to that particular patient supportapparatus 20, or if the user subsequently switches exit detection system46 from zone 1 back to zone 2 for that particular patient supportapparatus 20.

FIG. 27 illustrates a similar situation where the caregiver wishes toarm zone 3 of exit detection system 46 instead of zone 2. As with thesituation shown in FIG. 27, caregiver assistance application 124displays a warning window 492 on screen 490 that informs the caregiverthat zone 2 is the zone specified by fall risk reduction protocol 93. Ifthe user wishes to override this zone choice, however, the user is freeto press the confirm icon 494, in which case caregiver assistanceapplication 124 updates the fall risk reduction protocol 93 for thatparticular patient and no longer issues alerts due to zone 3 beingselected instead of zone 2. Caregiver assistance application 124automatically switches the protocol 93 back to zone 2 for thatparticular patient support apparatus 20 if a new patient is assigned toit or the caregiver switches exit detection system 46 back to zone 2from zone 3 on that particular patient support apparatus 20.

In addition to the alerts discussed above with respect to roundingalgorithm 140 and fall risk reduction algorithm 143, alerting algorithm149 is configured to alert caregivers whenever a status of any of thepatient support apparatuses 20 assigned to the caregiver changes whilethe bed watch feature is armed. Caregiver assistance application 124 mayfurther be configured to alert the corresponding caregiver whenever anypatient support apparatus 20 alert is issued by any of the patientsupport apparatuses 20 to which the caregiver is assigned (e.g. apatient exit alert, a cord-out alert, etc.). Such alerts may arise whenthe caregiver is using caregiver assistance application 124 for otherpurposes, such as one of the other tasks identified in task menu 174, orsuch alerts may arise while the caregiver is engaged in other tasks thatdon't involve the use of an electronic device 104. As noted, such alertsare communicated to the caregiver, in at least one embodiment, bysending a text, email, and/or automated phone call to the particularcaregiver associated with the patient support apparatus 20 that isissuing the alert. Further, alerting algorithm 149 is configured toallow users to choose how such alerts are issued, in at least someembodiments. Caregivers may therefore receive a text sent to theirmobile electronic device 104 a (or another phone capable of receivingtexts), for example, if the exit detection system 46 of a patientsupport apparatus 20 detects a patient exit, or if the nurse call cableis unplugged, or any other status changes that warrant an alert. Themobile electronic device 104 a responds to the received text (or emailor phone call) with a beep, the illumination of one or more lights, orin any other manner dictated by that particular caregiver's preferences.

Structural modifications may also be made to caregiver assistance system106. For example, although caregiver assistance system 106 has beendescribed herein as utilizing a caregiver assistance application 124executed on caregiver assistance server 90 and accessed by electronicdevices 104 having conventional web-browser applications stored thereon,caregiver assistance system 106 may be modified to include one or morenative applications that execute on the electronic devices 104 a or bthemselves. In some of these modified embodiments, the caregiver doesnot need to open up the web-browser to access caregiver assistanceapplication 124, but instead opens up a local caregiver assistancesoftware application on the electronic device 104 that interacts withthe caregiver assistance application 124 being executed on caregiverassistance server 90. In such embodiments, it may be easier to providealerts to the caregiver by having the electronic device vibrate, emit anaudible sound, and/or illuminate one or more lights on the device. Suchalerts may be more difficult to communicate to a caregiver whencaregiver assistance system 106 is implemented using browser-connectedelectronic devices 104, particularly if the caregiver has the browserapplication closed and/or running in the background and/or is notlooking at the information currently being displayed on the screen ofthe electronic device 104. Such native applications may be programmedfor execution with the Android or iOS operating systems, or still otheroperating systems utilized by the electronic device 104.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, althoughcaregiver assistance application 124 has been primarily described hereinwith reference to a single caregiver using a single electronic device104, caregiver assistance application 124 is not limited to use by onlya single caregiver and/or a single electronic device 104. Further,caregiver assistance application 124 is not limited to use with only asingle patient support apparatus 20 or a single patient. Instead,caregiver assistance application 124 is configured to be used, ifdesired, with all of the patient support apparatuses 20 within thehealthcare facility, as well any or all of the caregivers within thehealthcare facility. Such use of caregiver assistance application 124 bymultiple caregivers can occur simultaneously. That is, multiplecaregivers may be logged into caregiver assistance application 124 atthe same time. In such cases, caregiver assistance application 124 isconfigured to display the room, patient, and/or patient supportapparatus information discussed above for the set of rooms, patients,and/or patient support apparatuses 20 assigned to that particularcaregiver. In other words, each caregiver (other than those withadministrative access) is only able to view the room, patient, andpatient support apparatus information for the rooms and/or patientsassigned to that particular caregiver. Unless otherwise configured by anauthorized individual, alerts associated with those patients, rooms,and/or patient support apparatuses 20 are only communicated by caregiverassistance application 124 to the mobile electronic device 104 aassociated with that caregiver (and, in some cases, to the stationaryelectronic device 104 b that is associated with that particular room orpatient).

Stationary electronic devices 104 b are typically not used to performrounding tasks and/or patient fall risk assessments because they cannotbe carried with the caregiver to a patient's room, and thus aredifficult to use for capturing images or assessment information and/orperforming other tasks in the patient's presence. Nevertheless,stationary electronic devices 104 b are capable of displaying all of thescreens previously described and associated with caregiver assistanceapplication 124, and receiving all of the data that is input on thesescreens, including not only answers to rounding and/or assessmentquestions, but also commands to change components on the patient supportapparatuses 20. Further, authorized individuals 136 can configurecaregiver assistance application 124 as they see fit with respect towhat, if any, alerts are displayed on the stationary electronic devices104 b. For example, if a particular stationary electronic device 104 bis associated with a particular wing of the healthcare facility, thenthe authorized individual 136 may configure caregiver assistanceapplication 124 to notify the stationary electronic device 104 bwhenever any alert from any room or patient support apparatus 20 withinthat wing is issued. This can be configured even if the different roomsand/or patient support apparatuses 20 are assigned to differentcaregivers. As a result, caregiver A may receive alerts on his or hermobile electronic device 104 a for a first set of rooms in thatparticular wing; caregiver B may receive alerts on his or her mobileelectronic device 104 a for a second set of rooms in that particularwing; and the stationary electronic device 104 b associated with thatwing may receive alerts for both the first and the second sets of rooms(and any other rooms in that particular wing). Still other variationsare possible.

The data flows of caregiver assistance system 106 between caregiverassistance server 90, patient support apparatuses 20, and electronicdevices 104 are illustrated in greater detail in FIG. 2. As showntherein, patient support apparatuses 20 transmit patient supportapparatus messages 310 to patient support apparatus server 86 (ordirectly to caregiver assistance server 90) via network transceivers 60and wireless access points 76. The patient support apparatus datacontained within messages 310 includes such things as the status of theexit detection system 46 (armed or disarmed), the status of thesiderails 36 (up or down), the status of the electrical power cord 102(plugged in or not), the status of the nurse call cable 78 (plugged inor not), the status of the brake (on or off), the height of the litterframe 28, the status of the bed watch monitoring system, any existingalerts, and/or other data about patient support apparatus 20.

Caregiver assistance server 90, after receiving the data in thesemessages, transmits outbound messages 312 to selected ones of theelectronic device 104 (FIG. 2). The content of the outbound messages 312includes all or selected portions of the patient support apparatus datareceived via messages 310. Most of this patient support apparatus datais displayed on the screens in top portion 202. The outbound messages312 also include the data content for the display screens shown as partof general algorithm 226, rounding algorithm 140, and fall riskreduction algorithm 143. This data content includes, among other things,the rounding questions that are identified in the rounding displayscreens of FIGS. 10-13, the fall risk assessment questions that aredisplayed in the fall risk screens of FIGS. 19-24, any reminders, roomnumbers, alerts, and other data discussed herein.

Caregiver assistance server 90 receives inbound message 314 from theelectronic devices 104 in which it is in communication (FIG. 2). Inboundmessages 314 include rounding data, patient support apparatus commands,fall-risk assessment data, and/or verification data. The rounding dataincludes the answers and/or acknowledgements corresponding to therounding questions displayed on first through fourth rounding screens190, 220, 230, and 240, and the fall-risk assessment data includes theanswers to the fall risk questions that are asked as part of algorithm143. The patient support apparatus commands include any commands inputby the caregiver into the electronic device 104 to change a state of thecorresponding patient support apparatus 20. As discussed previously,such commands include commands to arm exit detection system 46 and/orcommands to arm a bed watch system, as well as other commands. Inboundmessages 314 may also include verification data, which is data gatheredby mobile electronic device 104 a that verifies the actual physicalpresence of the caregiver adjacent the patient support apparatus whosepatient the caregiver is performing rounding duties for. Morespecifically, the verification data includes the images of the QR code,bar code, patient support apparatus, and/or caregivers that are capturedby the mobile electronic device 104 a and sent to caregiver assistanceapplication 124, as was previously described above with respect to FIGS.15-17.

It will be understood that the data flows illustrated in FIG. 2 may bemodified significantly. For example, FIG. 28 illustrates a caregiverassistance system 106 a according to another embodiment of the presentdisclosure. Caregiver assistance system 106 a differs from caregiverassistance system 106 of FIG. 2 in that caregiver assistance system 106a includes different flows of messages sent between the caregiverassistance server 90, the mobile electronic devices 104 a, and thepatient support apparatuses 20. Caregiver assistance system 106 a alsodiffers from caregiver assistance system 106 of FIG. 2 in that itincludes modified patient support apparatuses 20 a that, unlike patientsupport apparatuses 20, include a short range transceiver 320. Furtheraspects of caregiver assistance system 106 a are described below.

Patient support apparatuses 20 a of caregiver assistance system 106 ainclude all of the same components of patient support apparatuses 20 ofcaregiver assistance system 106. Those common components have beenlabeled with common numbers in FIG. 2 and, unless explicitly stated tothe contrary below, the description of those components previously madeabove is equally applicable to these components. Caregiver assistancesystem 106 a differs from caregiver assistance system 106 primarily inthe source of the verification data that is sent by electronic device104 to caregiver assistance server 90 for use with rounding algorithm140. As noted, such verification data verifies that the caregiver wasactually physically present adjacent a patient support apparatus 20 awhen he or she performed his or her rounding tasks. In system 106 a, theverification data comes not from the images captured and illustrated inFIGS. 15-17, but from the short range transceiver 320 that is built intopatient support apparatus 20 a.

Short range transceiver 320 (FIG. 28) is adapted to wirelesslycommunicate with electronic devices 104 over a relatively short range.The short range is, in some embodiments, no larger than the typical sizeof a healthcare facility room such that, when a caregiver leaves aparticular room, the caregiver's mobile electronic device 104 a is nolonger within range of the short range transceiver 320, and therefore nolonger able to communicate with the short range transceiver 320. In someembodiments, short range transceiver 320 is an infrared transceiveradapted to communicate in line-of-sight situations with a correspondinginfrared transceiver built into the mobile electronic device 104 a. Inother embodiments, short range transceiver 320 is a near fieldtransceiver adapted to communicate with a near field transceiver builtinto mobile electronic device 104 a. In still other embodiments, shortrange transceiver 320 is an RF transceiver having a relatively smallpower output such that communications are limited to within a shortrange of patient support apparatus 20 a. Such RF transceivers mayinclude, but are not limited to, Bluetooth transceivers.

Regardless of the specific short range transceiver 320 utilized bypatient support apparatus 20 a, controller 48 of patient supportapparatus 20 a is configured to transmit one or more patient supportapparatus messages 322 using transceiver 320 to a nearby mobileelectronic device 104 a (FIG. 28). The messages 322 contain one or moreof the following pieces of information: the unique identifier 186 of thecorresponding patient support apparatus 20 a; the current time; and/orsufficient patient support apparatus data to indicate whether thecurrent status of the patient support apparatus 20 is in compliance withits desired settings or not. This information is transmittedperiodically and repetitively in some embodiments of patient supportapparatus 20 a. In other embodiments, this information is transmittedonly in response to an interrogation signal received from a mobileelectronic device 104 a. In still other embodiments, this informationmay be transmitted both repetitively and in response to interrogationsignals.

Mobile electronic device 104 a receives message(s) 322 when it ispositioned within the vicinity of patient support apparatus 20 a (FIG.28). Mobile electronic device 104 a uses the message 322 for carryingout the verification and/or compliance steps of rounding algorithm 140,and/or for carrying out one or more aspects of fall risk reductionalgorithm 143. With respect to patient rounding, in some embodiments,messages 322 are sent and captured by mobile electronic device 104 a aspart of step 252 of algorithm 140. The sending of messages 322 to mobileelectronic device 104 a takes the place of, or in some embodimentssupplements, the capturing of image data that otherwise occurs at step252 of algorithm 140. Mobile electronic device 104 a uses the messages322, particularly the patient support apparatus ID and/or time, toverify that it was physically present adjacent patient support apparatus20 a when the rounding occurred. This verification is handled, in someembodiments, internally via the programming of caregiver assistanceapplication 124 such that the caregiver does not need to enter anyinformation, or take any manual steps (other than positioning mobileelectronic device 104 a within range of transceiver 320) for thisverification data to be received by mobile electronic device 104 a andforwarded to caregiver assistance application 124. In other embodiments,in order to prevent a user (or electronic device 104 a) from modifyingthe data contained within messages 322, the data is encrypted with anencryption algorithm that caregiver assistance application 124 is ableto decrypt, but not mobile electronic device 104 a. In still otherembodiments, patient support apparatus 20 a may be further modified tosend a second message to caregiver assistance application 124 vianetwork transceiver 60 whenever it transmits message 322 via short rangetransceiver 320. This second message confirms to caregiver assistanceapplication 124 that message 322 was sent and, in some embodiments,contains the same information. If caregiver assistance application 124does not receive this second message, it does not accept theverification data sent from mobile electronic device 104 a.

With respect to patient fall risk reduction algorithm 143, patientsupport apparatus messages 322 may identify the particular patientsupport apparatus 20 to mobile device 104 a (and thus caregiverassistance application 124) that the caregiver is currently positionednext to. This allows caregiver assistance application 124 toautomatically, in at least some embodiments, bring up a screen thatcorresponds to that particular patient support apparatus 20 and thepatient assigned thereto. Thus, if the caregiver wishes to perform afall risk assessment for a particular patient, he or she merely needs towalk within range of messages 322 and press the fall task icon 178. Inresponse to pressing fall task icon 178, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 automatically displays screen 400 (or a screen like it)with full knowledge of which patient (and/or which patient supportapparatus 20) the answers to the fall risk questions are applicable to.The caregiver therefore is relieved of the task of manually identifyinga specific room or a specific patient before proceeding to the fall riskassessment process of fall risk reduction algorithm 143. Instead,caregiver assistance application 124 uses the specific patient supportapparatus identifier 186 received within message 322 to determine whichpatient the subsequent fall risk assessment applies to. Fall riskreduction algorithm 143 may also use data from messages 322 for otherportions of the fall risk reduction algorithm 143.

Regardless of whether they are used by rounding algorithm 140 and/orfall risk reduction algorithm 143, messages 322 (FIG. 28) also includepatient support apparatus data. In some embodiments, the patient supportapparatus data only includes an indicator indicating whether the patientsupport apparatus 20 is in a compliant or non-compliant state. In otherembodiments, the patient support apparatus data includes actual dataabout the state of each of the components of the patient supportapparatus 20 and the determination of whether the patient supportapparatus is in a compliant or non-compliant state is made by caregiverassistance application 124 based on the data communicated in message322, as well as data stored in local rules repository 126 defining thecriteria for compliance. In either embodiment, the patient supportapparatus data sent in message 322 is used by algorithm 140 to performstep 254 (FIG. 6) and/or by fall risk reduction algorithm 143 to performstep 360 (FIG. 18).

In some embodiments, message 322 may also include the current time. Ifincluded, this time information is also forwarded to caregiverassistance application 124. Caregiver assistance application 124 usesthis time information to confirm the time that the caregiver wasactually present at the patient's bedside when a rounding task wascompleted (or, in some embodiments, to record when another task wascompleted, such as a fall risk assessment). This time information issent to EMR server 98 in some embodiments so that the time at which therounding task, or other task, is recorded in the patient's electronicmedical record. In other embodiments, patient support apparatus 20 mayskip transmitting a time in message 322 and mobile electronic device 104a may append a time of receipt of message 322 in the data it sends tocaregiver assistance application 124. As yet another alternative, bothpatient support apparatus 20 and mobile electronic device 104 a may omitsending any time information and caregiver assistance application 124can instead record the time at which it receives the inbound messages314 from mobile electronic device 104 a. In any of these embodiments(which may be wholly or partially combined), the time is used bycaregiver assistance application 124 to determine and/or record when thecaregiver completed his or her rounding task (or other task) for theparticular patient assigned to the patient support apparatus 20 thatsent message 322.

FIG. 29 illustrates a caregiver assistance system 106 b according toanother embodiment of the present disclosure. Caregiver assistancesystem 106 b differs from caregiver assistance systems 106 and 106 a ofFIGS. 2 and 28, respectively, in that mobile electronic device 104 asends an electronic device message 324 to patient support apparatus 20 athat is used by caregiver assistance system 106 b for one or morepurposes. With respect to rounding algorithm 140, message 324 is used bypatient support apparatus 20 to verify that the caregiver was present atthe patient's bedside during the caregiver's performance of his or herrounding duties. With respect to fall risk reduction algorithm 140,messages 324 may be used to correlate the fall risk assessment to aspecific patient or patient support apparatus 20, or it may be used tosend a command to the patient support apparatus 20 directly in order tochange a state of any of the fall-risk components of patient supportapparatus 20.

As shown more clearly in FIG. 29, mobile electronic device 104 a isadapted in caregiver assistance system 106 b to send out a short rangemessage 324 to a nearby short-range transceiver 320 of patient supportapparatus 20 a. The short range message 324 is sent as a result of anyone or more of the following: in response to a user manipulating aninput on mobile electronic device 104 a, an expiration of a periodictime interval, an interrogation signal sent from short range transceiver320 of patient support apparatus 20 a, a signal from RTLS server 100 tomobile electronic device 104 a indicating that it is currently in a roomwith one or more patient support apparatuses 20 a, a combination of oneor more of these triggering conditions, and/or in response to stillother triggering conditions.

The content of electronic device message 324 includes a uniqueidentifier that uniquely identifies the mobile electronic device 104 a.This may be a serial number of the device 104 a, a MAC address, or someother identifier that distinguishes that particular mobile electronicdevice 104 a from other mobile or stationary electronic devices 104 a,104 b that are part of system 106 b, and/or other electronic devicesthat are not part of system 106 b but which may utilize the sameprotocol and/or communication channel as transceiver 320.

As with patient support apparatus message 322 (FIG. 28), electronicdevice message 324 may be sent via infrared, near field communication,low power RF (e.g. Bluetooth), or some other protocol that limits therange of message 324 such that it is not detected by patient supportapparatuses 20 a that are positioned outside of the room in which thecaregiver is currently located.

In response to receiving the electronic device message 324, controller48 of patient support apparatus 20 a forwards a message to caregiverassistance application 124 informing application 124 of the receipt ofthe message 324, including the mobile ID contained within the message324. Caregiver assistance application 124 uses the receipt of thisinformation at step 252 of rounding algorithm 140. That is, caregiverassistance application 124 waits for receipt of this message frompatient support apparatus 20 a and, if it does not receive it, itconcludes that there has been no verification of the caregiver'spresence beside the patient when performing his or her rounding task. Ifthe caregiver assistance application 124 receives the message, then itconcludes that there has been verification and proceeds to step 254 ofalgorithm 140. In some embodiments, caregiver assistance application 124proceeds from step 250 directly to step 254 and doesn't wait for thereceipt of the mobile ID from patient support apparatus 20. In suchembodiments, caregiver assistance application 124 checks to see if themobile ID has been received from the patient support apparatus 20 aafter performing step 254 and/or the steps of path 280 and/or 282 havebeen completed (but prior to step 256).

In the caregiver assistance system 106 b of FIG. 29, mobile electronicdevice 104 a does not need to include any verification data in theinbound messages 314 it sends to caregiver assistance server 90 becausesuch verification data is contained within the patient support apparatusmessages 310 sent by network transceiver 60. In some embodiments, theverification data contained within message 310 includes only the mobileelectronic device ID, while in other embodiments, the verification dataincludes additional information, such as, but not limited to, the timeat which the electronic device message 324 was received. Of course, allof the messages 310 sent from patient support apparatus 20 a (andpatient support apparatuses 20) via network transceiver 60 to caregiverassistance server 90 include the patient support apparatus ID.

In the caregiver assistance system 106 b of FIG. 29, the messages 314sent by mobile electronic device 104 a to caregiver assistance server 90may omit patient support apparatus data that is used to determinewhether the patient support apparatus 20 a is in a compliant state ornot. This information may be omitted because patient support apparatus20 a sends its status data directly via messages 310, and this statusdata is used by caregiver assistance application 124 to determine atstep 254 whether the patient support apparatus 20 a is in a compliantstate or not.

Caregiver assistance system 106 b of FIG. 29 may be modified to replacethe short range communication between mobile electronic device 104 a andtransceiver 320 of patient support apparatus 20 a. In such modifiedembodiments, rather than having a wireless signal transmitted to patientsupport apparatus 20 a to verify the caregiver's presence adjacent thepatient support apparatus 20 a, the patient support apparatus 20 a ismodified to accept a physical input from the caregiver, such as abutton, switch, or the like, that the caregiver presses during therounding task. The physical input may be included as an icon on atouchscreen of patient support apparatus 20 a, or it may be a dedicatedcontrol, or it may some combination of the two. As an alternative to aphysical input, a wireless signal may be utilized for verificationpurposes that does not involve mobile electronic device 104 a. Forexample, the input may involve a caregiver swiping a card with amagnetic strip along a card reader built into patient support apparatus20 a, or it may involve positioning a near field communication cardadjacent a near field communication transceiver built into patientsupport apparatus 20 a. Still other variations are possible.

Regardless of how the input to patient support apparatus 20 isimplemented, when the caregiver physically or wirelessly activates theverification control on patient support apparatus 20 a, controller 48sends a message 310 to caregiver assistance application 124 thatincludes verification data indicating that the caregiver was presentadjacent patient support apparatus 20 a. The message 310 may include atime at which the verification input was activated by the caregiver. Inthis modified embodiment of system 106 b, short range transceiver 320 ofpatient support apparatus 20 a may be omitted and/or modified, andmobile electronic device 104 a need not include a transceiver that iscompatible with transceiver 320.

It will be noted that, as shown in FIG. 29, caregiver assistance system106 b does not show electronic device 104 forwarding any fall riskassessment data to caregiver assistance server 90 via wireless accesspoint 76. Although caregiver assistance system 106 b can be configuredto forward such data in the manner previously described, caregiverassistance system 106 b can alternatively be configured such that thefall risk assessment data gathered at steps 346 through 352 of algorithm143 is gathered via a user interface or control panel on patient supportapparatus 20. Thus, instead of displaying screens such as those shown inFIGS. 19-24 on the display of electronic device 104, caregiverassistance application 124 can be configured to work with a patientsupport apparatus 20 that displays screens like those shown in FIGS.19-24 on one of its own displays (e.g. display 70). The answers to thosequestions are then sent by patient support apparatus 20 to caregiverassistance application 124 and used in the manner specified by algorithm143. In this particular embodiment, the patient support apparatus 20 isused to perform the fall risk assessment portion of algorithm 143, andthe electronic device 104 is used to receive and display alerts if thefall risk reduction protocol is not being followed. In still anotheralternative embodiment, the fall risk assessment questions may bedisplayed and answered on either or both of display 70 of patientsupport apparatus 20 or the display of the electronic device 104.

FIG. 30 illustrates another caregiver assistance system 106 c accordingto yet another embodiment of the present disclosure. Caregiverassistance system 106 c differs from caregiver assistance systems 106,106 a, and 106 b of FIGS. 2, 28, and 29, respectively, in that mobileelectronic device 104 a does not send any rounding data, fall riskassessment data, commands, and/or patient support apparatus data back tocaregiver assistance application 124. Instead, such data is communicatedto caregiver assistance server 90 via patient support apparatus 20 a.Caregiver assistance system 106 c also differs from the other caregiverassistance systems 106, 106 a, and 106 b in that it can utilize eitherpatient support apparatus 20 or patient support apparatus 20 a. That is,the patient support apparatuses usable with caregiver assistance system106 c can include short range transceiver 320, or they may omit shortrange transceiver 320. Indeed, in some embodiments, caregiver assistancesystem 106 c may be implemented in a healthcare facility wherein some ofthe patient support apparatuses includes short range transceiver 320 andothers do not.

In the embodiment of FIG. 30, system 106 c uses mobile electronicdevices 104 a (and/or stationary electronic devices 104 b (not shown))primarily to display information regarding the patient supportapparatuses 20 and/or 20 a, as well as, in some embodiments, to displayrounding information and/or fall risk protocol compliance information.The caregiver, however, does not utilize mobile electronic device 104 a(or device 104 b) to input rounding information, verification data, fallrisk assessment data (e.g. answer to fall risk questions), and/orcompliance data. Instead, all of this data is entered via a userinterface of patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a. Stated alternatively,in the embodiment of caregiver assistance system 106 c of FIG. 30, allof the screens shown in at least FIGS. 10-14 are adapted to be displayedon the display 70 of patient support apparatus 20, or 20 a, rather than(or in addition to) the display of the electronic devices 104.Controller 48 of system 106 c is therefore configured to execute asoftware application that displays the information shown in FIGS. 10-14on display 70 and provides the same functionality as those screens. Thecaregiver, for example, enters the patient's pain level using plus andminus icons 210 and 212 and a next icon 214 that are displayed ondisplay screen 70 of the corresponding patient support apparatus 20 or20 a (see FIG. 10).

In the embodiment of FIG. 30, mobile electronic device 104 a does notneed to receive any compliance data from the patient support apparatus20 or 20 a because this information is sent from the patient supportapparatus 20 to caregiver assistance application 124 (via messages 310).Indeed, in some embodiments of system 106 c, mobile electronic devices104 a may be dispensed with entirely, or used only to receive alertsand/or status updates. Alternatively, mobile electronic devices 104 amay be used to display information about the rounding status and/orpatient support apparatus status, but not accept any inputs regardingpatient rounding and/or fall risk assessments (and, in some embodiments,not accept any commands for commanding the patient support apparatus).

In the embodiment of FIG. 30, patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a maybe configured to require a user to enter a username and/or a passwordbefore allowing the caregiver to input the rounding information and/orfall risk assessment data into patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a.Such access may be carried out in the same or similar manner to what isillustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8. Alternatively, in some embodiments,patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a may be configured to allow thecaregiver to enter rounding data and/or fall risk data without firstestablishing his or her credentials.

In the caregiver assistance system 106 c of FIG. 30, neither mobileelectronic device 104 a nor patient support apparatus 20 (or 20 a) sendsany verification data to caregiver assistance server 90. This is becausethe rounding data comes to caregiver assistance server 90 via messages310 from patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a. Because such messages 310are specifically received from patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a, andare only sent in response to the caregiver manipulating one or morecontrols on the patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a, the very sendingof such messages 310 is verification that the caregiver is presentadjacent the patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a. In other words,because messages 310 originate from patient support apparatuses 20 or 20a in response to caregiver actions, such messages inherently providetheir own verification of the caregiver's presence.

It will be understood that caregiver assistance system 106 c of FIG. 30may be modified in a number of different manners. For example, in atleast one modified embodiment, rounding algorithm 140 is modified sothat no rounding questions and/or fall risk assessment questions aredisplayed, and/or caregiver assistance application 124 does not wait forreceipt of any answers for the rounding questions in algorithm 140. Inthis modified embodiment, it is assumed that the caregivers will ask theproper questions for either or both of the rounding task and the fallrisk assessment task while they are present in the patient's room.Therefore, system 106 c assumes that rounding questions and roundingtasks are properly asked and implemented whenever the caregiver ispresent in a patient's room, and also assumes that whenever it receivesa fall risk assessment score, the proper fall risk assessment questionswere asked. As a result of the former assumption, this modifiedembodiment of system 106 c concludes that a caregiver has properlyperformed a rounding task whenever his or her presence within apatient's room is detected (while the patient is present in that room).As a result of the latter assumption, caregiver assistance application124 concludes that the caregiver has properly determined the fall riskof a patient without having seen the specific questions used in the fallrisk assessment. Accordingly, in this modified embodiment, patientsupport apparatus 20 or 20 a is configured to send a roundingconfirmation message 310 to caregiver assistance server 90 whenever itdetects the presence of a caregiver. The message includes dataindicating the detection of the caregiver's presence, and caregiverassistance application 124 interprets this data as an indication thatthe caregiver has completed a round with that particular patient. If themessage includes a fall risk assessment, or a separate message 310 issent that includes a fall risk assessment, caregiver assistanceapplication 124 interprets this assessment as properly reflecting thepatient's fall risk according to the questions utilized by thatparticular healthcare facility.

In this modified embodiment of system 106 c, the presence of a caregiverwithin a room can be detected in a variety of different manners. In oneimplementation, patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a is modified to senda message 310 whenever a button or control is activated on one of thecaregiver control panels 42 a or 42 c. For example, if the scalecontrols are used to weigh the patient, or a therapy control is used toimplement a mattress therapy, or the exit detection system is armed,controller 48 of patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a sends a message310 to caregiver assistance server indicating that a caregiver hasactivated a control on patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a. The message310 is sent because system 106 c assumes that such button or controlactivations are the result of a caregiver's actions, not the patient'sactions. As a result, the message 310 includes data indicating that acaregiver is present in the room. The message 310 may include dataidentifying the specific control that has been activated and/or a timeat which the control was activated. Alternatively, message 310 maysimply indicate that a caregiver control was activated withoutspecifying which one and/or without specifying a time.

In another implementation of this modified embodiment of system 106 c,the caregiver carries a card (an RF ID card, a card with a magneticstrip, a near field communication card, or another type of card) that isdetected by a corresponding sensor on the patient support apparatus 20or 20 a when the caregiver is within relatively close proximity to thepatient support apparatus 20 or 20 a (e.g. within the same room, orcloser). In response to detecting the card, patient support apparatus 20or 20 a sends a message 310 to caregiver assistance application 124indicating the presence of the caregiver, and caregiver assistanceapplication 124 treats that message 310 as proof that the caregiver hascompleted a round with the patient. The message 310 may also includepatient support apparatus data that caregiver assistance application 124uses to determine if the patient support apparatus 20 or 20 a is in acompliant or non-compliant state. This data (the compliancy data androunding completion data) is then sent to EMR server 98, as discussedabove with respect to step 256 of algorithm 140.

In this modified embodiment of caregiver assistance system 106 c,patient support apparatus 20 (or 20 a) and/or mobile electronic device104 a can be designed to omit the display of any rounding questionsand/or rounding related screens shown in FIGS. 10-17. In other words, inthis modified embodiment, because the caregiver is assumed to performhis/her rounding duties correctly whenever present in the patient'sroom, there is no need to display the questions shown in FIGS. 10-13and/or receive answers to those questions. The display of these screenscan therefore be omitted. The same is true for the fall risk assessmentquestions and associated screens. That is, they may be omitted in someembodiments, but retained in other embodiments. Further, there is noneed to include the verification screens of FIGS. 15-17 because thecaregiver's presence is inherently verified in this embodiment (i.e. thecaregiver's presence is the trigger in this embodiment for concludingthat a rounding task has been completed). Indeed, in this embodiment,the web API 132 of caregiver assistance server 90 can be omittedentirely, if desired, along with need for any devices (electronicdevices 104 a, 104 b, or patient support apparatuses 20 or 20 a) to loginto this modified version of system 106 c.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that any of thecomponents, functions, and/or features of the different embodiments ofcaregiver assistance systems 106, 106 a, 106 b, and 106 c may becombined together, substituted, and/or mixed in any manner. As but onenon-limited example, system 106 may be modified to omit the display ofany rounding questions, similar to modified system 106 c, and thepatient support apparatuses 20 of system 106 may be modified to displaya code that identifies the bed and the current time. In this modifiedsystem, the caregiver is assumed to ask the desired rounding questionsand take care of the desired rounding tasks, and the modified systemmerely verifies the caregiver's presence in the patient's rooms. Thispresence is verified by the modified patient support apparatusdisplaying the code and the caregiver capturing an image of this codeusing his or her mobile electronic device 104 a that sends the capturedimage to caregiver assistance server 90. In some embodiments, the codeincludes both the bed ID and time, while in other embodiments the codeincludes only the bed ID. In still other embodiments, the bed ID and/ortime are not coded at all, but merely displayed so that an image of themcan be captured by the caregiver's mobile electronic device 104 a. In avariation on this embodiment, the patient support apparatus 20 may beconfigured to not display the ID and/or time (or the code) or thepatient support apparatus ID if the patient support apparatus is notcurrently in a compliant state, or it may simultaneously display thefact that it is not in a compliant state along with the ID and/or time(or a code with such information).

It will also be understood that, in any of the embodiments discussedabove that utilize one or more near field transceivers incorporated intoany of the patient support apparatuses 20 or 20 a, such patient supportapparatuses 20 or 20 a may constructed to include such near fieldtransceivers and/or utilize the near field transceivers in any of themanners disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 9,966,997 issuedMay 8, 2018, to inventors Michael Hayes et al. and entitledCOMMUNICATION SYSTEMS FOR PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUSES, the completedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Still further, it will be understood that any of the embodiments ofcaregiver assistance system 106 may omit one or more of the algorithmsshown in FIG. 3, and/or these algorithms may be supplemented withadditional algorithms. Thus, for example, in some modified embodiments,caregiver assistance system 106 (or 106 a, 106 b, or 106 c) is onlyconfigured to implement fall-risk reduction algorithm 143 withoutimplementing rounding algorithm 140, or vice versa. In still otherembodiments, still other combinations of two or more of the algorithmsshown in FIG. 3 may be implemented by the system. Further, it will beunderstood that additional modifications may be made to individualalgorithms beyond those already discussed above, such as, but notlimited to, modifying fall risk reduction algorithm 143 to omit the fallrisk assessment questions, or to include additional fall risk screensbeyond those illustrated herein.

Various additional alterations and changes beyond those alreadymentioned herein can be made to the above-described embodiments. Thisdisclosure is presented for illustrative purposes and should not beinterpreted as an exhaustive description of all embodiments or to limitthe scope of the claims to the specific elements illustrated ordescribed in connection with these embodiments. For example, and withoutlimitation, any individual element(s) of the described embodiments maybe replaced by alternative elements that provide substantially similarfunctionality or otherwise provide adequate operation. This includes,for example, presently known alternative elements, such as those thatmight be currently known to one skilled in the art, and alternativeelements that may be developed in the future, such as those that oneskilled in the art might, upon development, recognize as an alternative.Any reference to claim elements in the singular, for example, using thearticles “a,” “an,” “the” or “said,” is not to be construed as limitingthe element to the singular.

What is claimed is:
 1. A caregiver assistance system for assisting acaregiver to reduce patient fall risks, the caregiver assistance systemcomprising: (a) a plurality of beds, each of the beds comprising: alitter frame; a support deck supported on the litter frame andconfigured to support a patient thereon; a memory containing anidentifier uniquely identifying the respective bed; a transceiver; asensor configured to detect a state of a fall-risk component of therespective bed; and a controller in communication with the memory, thesensor, and the transceiver, the controller configured to transmit amessage via the transceiver, the message including the respectiveidentifier; and (b) a server configured to execute a caregiverassistance application, the caregiver assistance application configuredto receive a patient fall risk assessment from an external device, thepatient fall risk assessment identifying a fall risk of a particularpatient, wherein the caregiver assistance application is furtherconfigured to receive the messages from the plurality of beds and tomatch the patient fall risk assessment to a specific one of the beds towhich the particular patient has been assigned; and wherein the externaldevice is one of a smart phone, a tablet computer, or a laptop computercarried by a caregiver and configured to receive fall risk data from thecaregiver, the external device configured to generate the patient fallrisk assessment from the fall risk data, and wherein the fall risk dataincludes answers to a set of questions regarding the particular patient.2. The caregiver assistance system of claim 1 wherein the serverincludes a memory in which state data is stored defining a desired stateof the fall-risk component for patients having a high fall risk, and thecaregiver assistance application is configured to determine if the fallrisk of the particular patient qualifies as a high fall risk and, if itdoes, to determine if the fall-risk component of the specific one of thebeds is in the desired state based upon data received from the sensor ofthe specific one of the beds.
 3. A caregiver assistance system forassisting a caregiver to reduce patient fall risks, the caregiverassistance system comprising: (a) a plurality of beds, each of the bedscomprising: a litter frame; a support deck supported on the litter frameand configured to support a patient thereon; a memory containing anidentifier uniquely identifying the respective bed; a transceiver; asensor configured to detect a state of a fall-risk component of therespective bed; and a controller in communication with the memory, thesensor, and the transceiver, the controller configured to transmit amessage via the transceiver, the message including the respectiveidentifier; and (b) a server configured to execute a caregiverassistance application, the caregiver assistance application configuredto receive a patient fall risk assessment from an external device, thepatient fall risk assessment identifying a fall risk of a particularpatient, wherein the caregiver assistance application is furtherconfigured to receive the messages from the plurality of beds and tomatch the patient fall risk assessment to a specific one of the beds towhich the particular patient has been assigned; and wherein the serverincludes a memory in which state data is stored defining a desired stateof the fall-risk component for patients having a high fall risk, and thecaregiver assistance application is configured to determine if the fallrisk of the particular patient qualifies as a high fall risk and, if itdoes, to determine if the fall-risk component of the specific one of thebeds is in the desired state based upon data received from the sensor ofthe specific one of the beds.
 4. The caregiver assistance system ofclaim 3 wherein the specific one of the beds includes a plurality ofsensors configured to detect states of a plurality of fall-riskcomponents; the state data includes desired states for each of theplurality of fall-risk components; and the caregiver assistanceapplication is further configured to determine if any of the pluralityof fall-risk components of the specific one of the beds are not in theirrespective desired states, to communicate with a mobile electronicdevice carried by a caregiver, to provide data to the mobile electronicdevice indicating whether the plurality of fall-risk components of thespecific one of the beds are in their respective desired states or not,to provide data to the mobile electronic device identifying thefall-risk component, and to provide a graphical depiction of thespecific one of the beds and identifies the fall-risk component on thegraphical depiction.
 5. The caregiver assistance system of claim 4wherein the plurality of fall-risk components of the specific one of thebeds includes the following: a brake configured to selectively brake awheel; a siderail configured to move between a raised and loweredposition; a lift system configured to change a height of the litterframe; and an exit detection system configured to issue an alert whenthe exit detection system is armed and the particular patient exits fromthe specific one of the beds; and wherein the external device is one ofan electronic medical records (EMR) server or an Admission, Discharge,and Tracking (ADT) server.
 6. The caregiver assistance system of claim 4wherein the mobile electronic device is a browser enabled deviceconfigured to receive the data from the caregiver assistance applicationby accessing at least one Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated withthe server; wherein the mobile electronic device is further configuredto receive a room identifier from the caregiver and to forward the roomidentifier to the caregiver assistance application; and wherein thecaregiver assistance application is configured to associate the roomidentifier with the particular patient.
 7. The caregiver assistancesystem of claim 6 wherein the caregiver assistance application isfurther configured to cause the mobile electronic device to display analert if any of the plurality of fall-risk components of the specificone of the beds are not in their respective desired states; and to causethe mobile electronic device to display rounding data thereon, therounding data indicating at least one of: an amount of time since acaregiver last completed a rounding task associated with the particularpatient, or an amount of time until the caregiver is supposed tocomplete a future rounding task associated with the particular patient.8. A caregiver assistance system for assisting a caregiver to reducepatient fall risks, the caregiver assistance system comprising: (a) abed comprising: a litter frame; a support deck supported on the litterframe and configured to support a patient thereon; a memory containingan identifier uniquely identifying the bed; a transceiver; a pluralityof sensors configured to detect states of a plurality of fall-riskcomponents of the bed; and a controller in communication with thememory, the sensor, and the transceiver, the controller configured totransmit the identifier and the states of the plurality of fall-riskcomponents; and (b) a server configured to execute a caregiverassistance application, the caregiver assistance application configuredto receive the identifier and the states of the plurality of fall-riskcomponents of the bed and to monitor compliance of the plurality offall-risk components with a fall risk reduction protocol, the caregiverassistance application configured to communicate with a mobileelectronic device comprising a display, a user input, and a web browserconfigured to be able to access a particular Uniform Resources Locator(URL) associated with the caregiver assistance application, thecaregiver assistance application further configured to cause the mobileelectronic device to perform the following after accessing theparticular URL: (i) display the states of the plurality of fall-riskcomponents of the bed; (ii) receive fall risk data via the user inputfrom a caregiver associated with the mobile electronic device and thebed; (iii) transmit the fall risk data to the server; and (iv) issue analert if any of the states of the plurality of fall-risk components ofthe bed do not comply with the fall risk reduction protocol.
 9. Thecaregiver assistance system of claim 8 wherein the caregiver assistanceapplication is further configured to cause the mobile electronic deviceto perform the following after accessing the particular URL: display aset of questions relating to a fall risk of the patient; receive answersto the set of questions; and transmit the answers to the server; andwherein the caregiver assistance application is further configured toalso cause the mobile electronic device to perform the following afteraccessing the particular URL: receive data from the user input defininga change to the fall risk reduction protocol.
 10. The caregiverassistance system of claim 8 wherein the plurality of fall-riskcomponent comprises: (a) a brake configured to selectively brake awheel; (b) a siderail configured to move between a raised and loweredposition; (c) a lift system configured to change a height of the litterframe; and (d) an exit detection system configured to issue an alertwhen the exit detection system is armed and the patient exits from thebed; and wherein the plurality of sensors comprises: (i) a brake sensorconfigured to detect whether the brake is activated or inactivated; (ii)a siderail position sensor configured to detect whether the siderail isin the raised or lowered position; (iii) a height sensor configured todetect a height of the litter frame; and (iv) an exit detection armedsensor configured to detect when the exit detection system is armed ornot; and wherein the fall risk reduction protocol defines desired statesfor each of the brake, siderail, lift system, and exit detection system.11. The caregiver assistance system of claim 9 wherein the caregiverassistance application is further configured to use the answers to theset of questions received from the mobile electronic device to generatea patient fall risk assessment, and to determine whether the fall riskreduction protocol is to be followed for the bed or not based upon thepatient fall risk assessment.
 12. The caregiver assistance system ofclaim 11 wherein the caregiver assistance application is furtherconfigured to forward the patient fall risk assessment to an electronicmedical records server in communication with the server; wherein themobile electronic device is one of a smart phone, a tablet computer, ora laptop computer; wherein the bed further comprises a user interfaceconfigured to allow a user to input data defining the fall riskreduction protocol; and wherein the caregiver assistance application isfurther configured to receive the data defining the fall risk reductionprotocol from the bed.
 13. The caregiver assistance system of claim 10wherein the caregiver assistance application is further configured tocause the mobile electronic device to display rounding data thereon, therounding data indicating at least one of: an amount of time since acaregiver last completed a rounding task associated with the patient, oran amount of time until the caregiver is supposed to complete a futurerounding task associated with the patient; and wherein the caregiverassistance application is still further configured to allow the mobileelectronic device to receive a command to arm the exit detection systemfrom a user and to forward the command to the bed, wherein thecontroller arms the exit detection system in response to receiving thecommand.
 14. A caregiver assistance system for assisting a caregiver toreduce patient fall risks, the caregiver assistance system comprising:(a) a bed comprising: a litter frame; a support deck supported on thelitter frame and configured to support a patient thereon; a memorycontaining an identifier uniquely identifying the bed; a transceiver; aplurality of sensors configured to detect states of a plurality offall-risk components of the bed; and a controller in communication withthe memory, the sensor, and the transceiver, the controller configuredto transmit the identifier and the states of the plurality of fall-riskcomponents; and (b) a server configured to execute a caregiverassistance application, the caregiver assistance application configuredto perform the following: (i) communicate with a mobile electronicdevice comprising a display and a user input; (ii) receive from themobile electronic device answers to a plurality of fall risk questions;(iii) generate a patient fall risk assessment from the answers; (iv)determine a desired state for each of the plurality of fall-riskcomponents of the bed if the patient fall risk assessment indicates thepatient has a high risk of falling; (v) compare the states of theplurality of fall-risk components to corresponding ones of the desiredstates of each of the plurality of fall-risk components; and (vi) issuean alert at the mobile electronic device if at least one of the statesof the plurality of fall-risk components does not match thecorresponding desired state.
 15. The caregiver assistance system ofclaim 14 wherein the plurality of fall-risk component comprises: (a) abrake configured to selectively brake a wheel; (b) a siderail configuredto move between a raised and lowered position; (c) a lift systemconfigured to change a height of the litter frame; and (d) an exitdetection system configured to issue an alert when the exit detectionsystem is armed and the patient exits from the bed; and wherein theplurality of sensors comprises: (i) a brake sensor configured to detectwhether the brake is activated or inactivated; (ii) a siderail positionsensor configured to detect whether the siderail is in the raised orlowered position; (iii) a height sensor configured to detect a height ofthe litter frame; and (iv) an exit detection armed sensor configured todetect when the exit detection system is armed or not; and wherein thedesired state for each of the plurality of fall-risk components of thebed includes a desired state for each of the brake, siderail, liftsystem, and exit detection system.
 16. The caregiver assistance systemof claim 15 wherein the caregiver assistance application is furtherconfigured to determine the desired state for each of the plurality offall-risk components by consulting a fall risk reduction protocol storedin the memory, the fall risk reduction protocol specifying desiredstates for each of the plurality of fall-risk components when thepatient has a high risk of falling, and wherein the bed furthercomprises a user interface configured to allow a user to input datadefining the fall risk reduction protocol and the caregiver assistanceapplication is further configured to receive and store in the memory thedata defining the fall risk reduction protocol from the bed.
 17. Thecaregiver assistance system of claim 15 wherein the caregiver assistanceapplication is further configured to forward the patient fall riskassessment to an electronic medical records server in communication withthe server, and to cause the mobile electronic device to displayrounding data thereon, the rounding data indicating at least one of: anamount of time since a caregiver last completed a rounding taskassociated with the patient, or an amount of time until the caregiver issupposed to complete a future rounding task associated with the patient.18. The caregiver assistance system of claim 15 wherein the caregiverassistance application is configured to allow an authorizedadministrator change the plurality of fall risk questions.
 19. Thecaregiver assistance system of claim 15 wherein the mobile electronicdevice is configured to communicate with the caregiver assistanceapplication via a Uniform Resources Locator (URL) associated with thecaregiver assistance application; wherein the caregiver assistanceapplication is configured to issue the alert by sending at least one ofthe following to the mobile electronic device: an email or a textmessage; and wherein the mobile electronic device is one of a smartphone, a tablet computer, or a laptop computer.
 20. The caregiverassistance system of claim 17 wherein the caregiver assistanceapplication is further configured to cause the mobile electronic deviceto receive rounding data from a caregiver indicating the rounding taskwas completed, and to cause the mobile electronic device to captureverification data verifying the caregiver was physically presentadjacent the bed at a time the rounding task was completed; wherein theverification data is derived from at least one of the following: imagedata of at least a portion of the bed captured by a camera includedwithin the mobile electronic device, or data communicated from the bedto the mobile electronic device using near field communication.